Welcome, welcome, welcome to the Fantasy Fan Reads podcast. We are thrilled to announce the newest bookish podcast under the Fantasy Fan Girls Media Network. What you're about to hear is the first little bit of this brand new podcast, Fantasy Fan Reads, which is hosted by the delightful Jess of Lost Books of Jess. Each episode is all about celebrating the joys of reading through cozy coffee conversations, author interviews, and so much more. These first few episodes of Fantasy Fan Reads will be having little snippets posted on the Fantasy Fan Girls feed, where you're listening to our beautiful voices right now. If you want to listen to the full episode, you can do so over on the Fantasy Fan Reads podcast feed. Link is in the show notes. Be sure to follow the Fantasy Fan Reads podcast feed, and hey, it's on YouTube too. New episodes drop every single Tuesday. Give the podcast a follow on Instagram at fantasyfanreads. So without further ado, and with all of your follow buttons hit, we hope you enjoy this snippet of Fantasy Fan Reads. ["Fantasy Fan Reads Theme Song"] Hey there, how are you? Welcome to the Fantasy Fan Reads podcast, where we gather as friends to chat about our shared love of all things reading. I'm Jess, an avid lifelong reader and lover of cozy conversations. So go ahead and grab yourself a cup of something wonderful and come on in. Today's episode is a super exciting author interview for me. I'm joined by Sarah Beth Durst, author of recent books such as The Spell Shop, The Enchanted Greenhouse, The Warbler, and so many more. How are you doing today, Sarah? I am doing great. I'm so excited to be talking with you. Thanks for having me here. Oh, you're so welcome, Sarah. I'm frankly thrilled through the moon to talk to you today because your books are such a warm hug that really cemented my love for the cozy fantasy genre. So I can't wait to dig into all of that with you. A quick heads up as we get started. This episode will be mostly spoiler free for Sarah's books, but since I can't help myself, there will be a few questions at the end of the episode that head into spoiler territory. I'll be sure to give you a warning first before we spill the tea. Fantasy Fan Reads is also the newest podcast in the Fantasy Fan Girls Media Network, and as a new show, your support means the world. Please give us a follow at Fantasy Fan Reads on social media, rate and review the podcast, and spread the word to your friends. Plus, if you wanna help support every show under the Fantasy Fan Girls Media Network, you can join the Fantasy Fan Club for exclusive content, early access and ad-free episodes, live Q&As, book club, private discord, community events, and so much more. Go on over to fantasyfangirls.com slash fan club for more information about the Fantasy Fanatics and Deep Divers tiers and benefits where you get all show access. Well, now that that's out of the way, Sarah, Sarah, I gotta talk to you as a reader and a human first before I talk to you as an author. Are you reading anything right now? What kind of books are you into? Yeah, which one is it? I'm firmly in my cozy era, so pretty much all the books that I'm reading and all the books that I'm writing right this second are that warm hug cozy thing. I was like, wait, I can download like 20 of them. Always saying commandana. Definitely recommend her. Love her books. Oh, and she's got like a really good middle grade. This isn't cozy, I'm immediately bearing away. That's okay. Your middle grade, Vanya and the Wild Hunt, is really good too. I've not read that yet. See, I'm getting recommendations today. That's why I asked this question. But I just read a cozy sci-fi that I'm excited about. It's called Mossed in Space by Rebecca Thorne. And there's a sentient moss that Rebecca's told me it was inspired partially by Kaz. So I was like already in love. Oh, well, I'm in love now too because I might be the president of the Kaz fan club. Oh yeah. I love that. So that one was really great. And Until the Clock Strikes Midnight by Alicia Dow. It's basically, you know that Cinderella retelling with Whitney Houston as a fairy godmother? Yes, yes. It's like that. Oh my God. But about that character. It's super cool. You're my book soul sister right now because everything you're saying, I'm like I need all of these. I've just really been craving happy books lately, you know, world falling apart. I need the happy. Yes, and books are such a good place for like either escaping what we don't want to face or facing something in a safer way. But sometimes we need the cozy escape for sure. I think we do. And I think there's nothing wrong with that. People keep saying like the, I hate that phrase guilty of pleasure because joy is so rare, you just have to seize it when you can. And I think escape is necessary. You know, you just can't keep curling yourself against the brick wall all the time. You have to like heal your bruises a little bit before you go back out there. So it's even good. I had never thought about it that way about how when something brings us a lot of joy, we fall into calling it a guilty pleasure sometimes. Like now I'm gonna be thinking on that. Where's the guilt in joy? Don't do it people. Right, if making yourself happier means that you have more inside you to give to the world. So I think there's nothing guilty or bad about it. Oh my gosh, we could stop now. I love that so much. Okay, because I also need to know, in my opinion, cozy reading and warm beverages go hand in hand. Do you have a go to cozy warm beverage? What's your favorite? My absolute favorite is hot chocolate. I love hot chocolate. I like fancy hot chocolate, but I also like the giant Costco size box of Swiss mess. That'll do just fine. Yeah, we can't be fancy all the time. Sometimes we just need hot chocolate. Especially if you're doing it in quantity. I know, somebody introduced me to a dirty hot chocolate where you get the coffee shop to put a shot of espresso in your hot chocolate, so you get both, but it's like better than a mocha. It was a life altering experience for me. I have not tried that, that sounds beautiful. So if you could drink hot chocolate with any two book characters, who would you cozy up with? And they don't even have to be from your books, it could be anyone, but. Okay, I can think of it from my books. You can do that too. You can do that too, who do you wanna hang out with from your books? I would do Calissa from the far away inn, which is coming out soon, because she bakes amazing cakes, and I feel like she would bring them to hot chocolate. And I would also pick Dax from Sea of Charms, which also isn't out yet, because you fall in love with the books that you're writing next. He is a world-class musician, and I feel like he would be playing music. I would be eating cake, there would be hot chocolate, it would be excellent. That is, I love that your choices are because they were gonna like enhance the experience. You're like, we'll have food, we'll have music, well you bring the hot chocolate set. That would be lovely. How about you, who would you pick? Oh my gosh, that is a great question. Well I'm gonna answer from your books, I think, because that's kind of where we're at. And I have to pick Kaz, I have to, I wanna talk to Kaz. I think hot chocolate might calm him down a little bit, we could mellow that out. And I also, I have a deep love for Turlu. I love her so much. She's someone I want to give a hug. Like I wanna have hot chocolate with her and be like, I don't know, I relate to her in some ways. I think she would be a good hugger too. I think she would be all in. Yes, oh, she's so wonderful. Last question before we dig into the writing side of things, is how does reading bring you joy? Like I'm a big believer in the power of the joy of reading. So what about reading brings you that joy? Absolutely, that's part of why we do it, is just to put ourselves in touch with something bigger than ourselves. I just, I have always, always thought that books are magic. Yes, so. We have this ability to fall in love with something that doesn't and can't possibly exist with people that aren't real yet, they stick inside our heart and we get to carry them around forever. And just that joy of connection, of these impossible beings that can be loved universally from people that will never meet, people in different times of different ages and stuff. I just think that is such a joyous thing. That connection on an imaginary plane. Does that make sense? It totally makes sense. It is. No, I'm with you. I've always said that the magic of reading for me is the fact that something that was born in someone else's imagination is so real to me. Like what you were just saying, and is evoking emotions for me. And maybe it's not even the emotions that the author intended, but the fact that their words had the power to reach me randomly on planet Earth and impact me in some way, is you can't beat that feeling. Yeah, it's just, it's a shared dream. I feel like books exist in that liminal space between the writer and the reader. And that that space can be accessed by everyone, I think is so beautiful. Cause I think what every single book, what it's saying at its core is you are not alone. Yes. That's what I love about books. That magic of that invisible line that connects people's hearts that they don't even know is there, but it is. And it ties us together. It's so cool. It really, really does. And I think it's magical that different people get different things out of that same book. Like the connection that I find is different than the person down the street, but we experienced the same story. Great. It's belong to all of us. And that you can experience a book at different stages of your own life. You can come back to a story and it means something else to you. Oh, it is so cool. It really is. So along these lines, tell me a little bit about your journey into writing. Have you been a lifelong reader and writer? Did you find your way into this career differently? What was your path? Yeah, lifelong. It's definitely a lifelong. Yeah, my mom introduced me to books at a super young age. I was like that small child in the library that was taking out more books than I am tall. She'd have to invent rules that I could only take out as many books as I could carry. And then libraries would be like, are you really gonna read all this? And I was like, I like to have choices. So I've always loved books. I was super shy as a kid and this was a place where I could be brave, where I could make friends that would stay with me and I could ride dragons and defeat dragons and befriend dragons and pretty much, the whole dragon thing. All the dragons. All the dragons, all the dragons. Yeah, in fact, when I wasn't reading, my parents would be like, Sarah, you need fresh air, go outside and I would spend it searching for a dragon's egg. So it was pretty much just all dragons. As soon as I realized about age 10 that these books that I was so in love with were written by humans, which, by the hand, really occurred to me before that, that's the only thing I ever wanted to do. So I didn't look back. I just started writing and that's pretty much all I do. Wow, that's amazing. I am a lifelong, like, I knew I wanted to be a teacher the second I went to school, so I can relate to that. Like, when you feel that thing within yourself that you knew you wanted to do, it's such a cool moment. Were there any books in your childhood that you can think of right now that were pivotal ones that, like, some certain stories that really hit you when you were a kid? When I, I always mention, because it was so pivotal, was Alana by Tamara Pierce. I don't know if everybody listening has read it, but in case you haven't, it's about a girl who dresses up as a boy to become a knight in a land where only boys can become knights. And I just, I read that one as 10, and I have this clear memory of closing that book and thinking to myself, if Alana can become a knight, I can become a writer. And it was just one of those, like, empowering books, which is, I think why I'm drawn to fantasies, because I love those books that make you feel stronger than you thought you were, but make you feel braver than say, yes, yes, you can do this, yes, you can defeat the big bad, yes, you can meet a magical whatever. Yeah. You know, sometimes I encounter people who aren't as big of a fantasy reader as I am, or there's like, there's the fantasy naysayers, they're like, what do you mean? You want to read about magic and dragons, and I always say to them, it's more about us than you think. Like, yes, it's a dragon, but... Oh, no, yeah, fantasy is 100% discussing the human condition. In fact, I would argue that it is able to do it in a much more extreme and in depth way because it is fantasy than other forms of literature, because you can take a concept and explore it to its very extreme beyond the rules of physics and the known world, and you can push that idea of revenge, you can push the idea of love, of second chances, of hope, of hopelessness, I don't write that one, but I do some of the other ones. But you can do it in a real extreme, extreme way, and I often think of it as the extreme sport of empathy because we really are putting ourselves in the footsteps of these people that are like blue, or have wings, or fangs, or whatever, and it is reflecting back some aspect of what it means to be human, what it means to move through the world and react to the world. Yeah, I like fantasy. I mean, you and me both, I feel like you just stole every thought out of my brain, like when I try to explain to people how impactful fantasy is as a genre, because I also think it gives you just enough of detachment from like sometimes it's hard to read about very realistic things, especially when they involve tragedy or hardship, and that can be challenging. And sometimes when it has that fantasy twist on it, you can still get that emotional impact, you can investigate it as a reader, you can, like you said, think about the human condition, but you're not necessarily faced with characters that feel like your next door neighbor. You get that little like one step away from how scary the real, real world can be. Yes, yeah, absolutely. It lets you explore things within a journey that you know that you're going to come back from. Yeah. Hopefully. Hopefully. Although I have closed a few books in my day and been like, I don't know that I will ever recover from what just happened. That is fair. That is fair. I will say though, your books don't leave me feeling that way because so many of us know you as a curator of all things cozy. Like I feel like you are synonymous with that feeling. So I need to know, like in your real life, are you also a cozy person? Like are you someone who does cozy hobbies or like what does your life outside of writing look like? Have a life outside of writing? Oh no. No, it's good. It's good. Writing makes me happy. Yeah. So I am a pretty cozy person. I do have a very sunshiny view of the world in general. I believe that everybody deserves magic. I believe that everyone deserves love and a second chance and that there is the potential for great inside of everybody so long as they're open to it and open to other people and so long as they're kind. I really am as optimistic as my books, but I possess no skill other than stringing sentences together. So... Oh, I mean, that's a pretty amazing skill to have, Sarah. It's a pretty fabulous skill. That's it. I'm often asked how, you know, you must have amazing garden, you must be a great baker. I'm like, no, I still can't make a baguette that doesn't come out like a baseball bat. No, I've tried many times and it's people keep asking me for after Enchanted Greenhouse for my honey cake recipe and I'm like, hmm, man, I'm not really the one you should be asking this. I did try and it wasn't good. But in my mind, my imagination is delicious. My insides feel ooey and gooey and oh, so warm. We love Jess. If you wanna listen to the rest of this episode, head on over to the Fantasy Fan Reads podcast feed where you'll find all of the full episodes of Fantasy Fan Reads. Link is in the show notes. And hey, since you already listened to this episode or a little snippet of this episode, why don't you head on over to the podcast feed and rate the show five stars? It is one of the best things you can do for every podcast, but especially baby new little baby podcasts. Also, be sure to follow Fantasy Fan Reads podcast feed so that you stay in the know every single Tuesday when episodes drop. And give the show a follow on Instagram at fantasyfanreads. Thank you so much for listening. Bye-bye. Bye.
