#276: Christmas Cookies & Novel Updates

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Emma:

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You're listening to The Beautiful Mess Podcast, your cozy comfort listen. And this week we are riffing

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about our favorite Christmas cookies to make every single year, and we're updating you on our novels. So

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two of our favorite subjects, cookies, novels, and we're glad you're here.

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Elsie:

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Yay. Okay, so before we jump in this week, I think we have to talk about Wicked. So Emma, she is the

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organized aunt.

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Emma:

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Oh my God. Thank you for saying that.

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Elsie:

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And I am the good gifting aunt, and that is our two. You are really good at separate roles. So she bought

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us Wicked tickets for opening weekend, and it was like a party. It was at the Alamo Draft house. Our

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small town, for some reason has one of those, and it's great. It's the best thing about Our Town. It's at

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the top five, it's up there and it's wonderful. And so she got us tickets to a Wicked movie party, opening

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movie party, and there was a person dressed as Alphabet as you go in. And then there was a costume

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contest, which do you want to tell them what happened? Yes. And this was the middle of the day. Our

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showing was at 2 45. So there was a lot of families. My kids came, I learned a lesson when I took them to

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the Wizard of Oz play that started at 7:00 PM last year. So it was a lot of families, younger kids. It was

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that time. I mean, there are all sorts of people there, but the costume party, it was a bunch of little girls

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who went down to the front when they called for 'em. And they were all dressed as either Alphabet or

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Galinda. And Marigold of course, was dressed kind of as her normal self, but as Glinda, she had an old

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Halloween costume on and they had every girl do a little twirl and then people would clap.

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Emma:

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So by applause they were the winner, and we kind of knew Marigold was going to win. She was the

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youngest kid down there. And I feel like usually that's kind of how if we didn't have one of our kids down

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there, I would've just clapped for the smallest person. She's little. It's just what you do. It's just sweet. So

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anyway, Marigold won and she was very proud.

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Elsie:

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She's very proud. So she got this, they call them popcorn buckets. So I noticed that the Alamo, I don't

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know if it's like this at other places, but the popcorn buckets are getting kind of unhinged. But it's like a

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full toy. It's like a Barbie dream house. And they're like, you can put popcorn in it. I'm like, I guess there's

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a tiny, I mean you could put, if you made a bag of microwave popcorn, you could put half of it into this

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thing. It doesn't fit a lot of popcorn, but it does have a plastic. Basically Barbie on the outside of Ariana

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Grande has Glenda and it has the wand in 3D, which is the best part. Yeah, we had a wonderful time.

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And the best part was when they started singing For Good, MariGold just had last week a performance

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at her school where it was a Broadway melody or medley Where they did five different songs and they

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knew that song. And so she had all the words and the sign language, and so she sang the song and she

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did the sign language. And I was just bawling. It was cute. It was so cute. And a woman next to me

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handed me tissues in the middle of it. So it was pretty, it was cute. Wonderful experience.

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Emma:

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Also say our orders, so it was like Diet Coke, Elsie's on the end, and the girls were in the middle. Diet,

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Coke, Coke, Coke, Chardonnay, popcorns, anima needs Chardonnay in case. So that's what I order for

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myself. No, I mean it's unclear if you pop lunch or not. I think that was, I hadn't, that was my lunch.

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Elsie:

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No, I love it. I usually always get a cocktail when I go there, but it was a little early for me in the day.

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Emma:

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Yeah, you were solo parenting that weekend too. It's like that's a tricky, yeah, not a, but it was so fun.

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Elsie:

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But it was wonderful. And the movie was so cute. I thought the kids loved it and they were engaged the

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entire time. So I feel like we're unlocking now higher levels of movies they can be engaged with. The next

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day they watched the entire sound of Music and they asked for it and they watched it and they sang the

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songs and they enjoyed it. Kind of the holy through. I think we might've fast forwarded through a couple

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of boring parts, really, really boring parts, but it's pretty boring. Movie is honestly a pretty boring movie. I

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love it. But it is more on the visuals and the dialogue parts can be, it has very classic songs too, so I feel

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like most people can sing at least a few of 'em, even if you don't. Totally. No. So that's fun if you're

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wanting to sing along. But yeah, the best, it was fun.

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Emma:

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Yeah, thanks for saying on Organized an because I feel so, gosh, you are disorganized in this season of my

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life.

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Elsie:

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I would've never gotten tickets for that. And it was on a Saturday at the perfect time. I think I bought 'em

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when they had just come available.

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Emma:

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I wanted to go. I didn't see The First Wicked. We'll talk about this more later.

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Elsie:

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You've never seen The First Wicked?

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Emma:

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No.

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Elsie:

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Oh, you should watch it with us. It's cute. The kids watch it every day. I don't get to watch a lot of movies,

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it's just not in my, well, I'll tell you about it later. They have the regular version and then they have the

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sing-along version. If you just want to just do the songs.

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Emma:

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They have a lot of sing-alongs at Alamo, so you should look at the calendar actually really cute. And then

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it's very, because if you don't have an Alamo draft house where you live, there's other versions of this.

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It's just really good food and the seats recline. And when they have a movie party or just certain types of

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showings, they make it where kids can talk and even walk around a little bit. It's very friendly.

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Elsie:

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We bring blankets. All three of us have our own blanket, and then there's a lot of parents who do that.

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And I just think it really adds something to the experience. It's sweet. Sweet. So we're going to share our

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top three Christmas cookies just because every year we're not going to skip talking about Christmas

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cookies. Okay. Why would we do that? Ittis the season and now is the time that you might need a new

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recipe to try or you might need to be reminded of a favorite to put into your rotation. I feel like every

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grocery list that, at least for me, for the next, let's say six weeks, is going to have cookie ingredients on

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the list. It is a high sugar season. It's time. Yes. Yeah. Okay. So tell us your top three Christmas cookies.

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Emma:

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Okay. I love butter cookies. So if you don't know, butter cookies are very similar to shortbread, but

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they're not quite as hard and crunchy. They're not as crumbly. Yeah, they're not as Crumb softer.

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Shortbread is very hard to assemble with your hands. You cannot use cookie headers with it. You kind of

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have to use the press pan. Yeah. It's better if your recipe's really good. And I like shortbread a lot, by the

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way. Me too. But I kind of think of it as more all year round, I think in part because girl, they have a Girl

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Scout version that's shortbread, which is not compared to yours. No, it's really not. But I still like them

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and I still buy them. So anyway. But I do love butter cookies. We have a recipe on our website, the

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beautiful mus.com and on it you'll see that we did a version where they're like Circle cookies and you can

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do a Christmas stamp into them. And I really like that. I think that's really fun.

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Elsie:

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Well, we should say, if you just go on a beautifulmess.com search cookies, there's around, I find all these

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that has 50 cookie recipes and it has all the cookies we're going to mention in it. So trust me, they're all

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there. All these are on there.

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Emma:

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So my second favorite is snowball cookies, which these are kind of crumbly. They usually have pecans or

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other nuts in them, and they're covered with powdered sugar on the outside. And they're a bit of a mess

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really. But they're so good, they kind of melt in your mouth a little bit. And a lot of the cookies that I like,

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I often eat cookies with hot chocolate or coffee, depending what time of day it is. Yes. I eat cookies in the

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morning, it's holiday season. So anytime of day have some kind of hot beverage with me. Not that I'm

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dipping it, but I just feel like when you have a crumbly cookie, you want a hot beverage with you. I

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dunno.

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Elsie:

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I support having an occasional cookie for breakfast. And the reason why is because I noticed that my

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husband is a night eater and I'm just not a night eater. So we always get the rumble cookies and he eats

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them at night. And I always have mine in the middle of the day. I dunno, I just don't like eating at night

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after dinner. If I'm going to have a dessert, I do it immediately and then I'm good. And I'm more on the

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hot tea.

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Emma:

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I am a little weird about too much sugar right before bed. I think it kind of keeps me up. I think I'm

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getting to that age where it's like, no, no, no, you got to finish up your coffees by 3:00 PM and don't eat a

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ton of sugar right before bed.

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Elsie:

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In the morning I definitely support that if you have how sometimes you have leftover pie, if there's

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certain things that are so good.

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Emma:

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Leftover pie for breakfast, that's the dream. Yes, it really is right there. That's living. And then my third

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one is peanut butter blossoms. Sometimes people call these different things, but essentially it is kind of

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like a peanut butter cookie that has chocolate kiss in the center. Or you can put a mini Reese's peanut

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butter cup. I like to do the ones this time of year that are peppermint Hershey's kiss, or they have one

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that's like a sugar cookie, Hershey's kiss. Those are really good. Those are my three. And then I have an

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honorable mention, which is puppy chow. They call this different things in different regions, but where

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I'm from, it's always called Puppy Chow, but it's essentially Chex Mix cereal that's been covered in melted

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chocolate and then tossed in powdered sugar. And this is the kind of thing that we make and just have

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around. And it's also, we'll make it and put it into little bags and kind of give it to people as a gift. I'll take

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some to my hairdresser or something random like that. Someone you're not necessarily going to do a big

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present for, but it's just a friendly, here's a little holiday treat kind of thing.

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Elsie:

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These are my three favorite cookies and I make all of these every year. So the first one is sugar cookies. I

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was going to say that because I always do sugar Cookies are my passion. It is like my seasonal craft for

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winter. So we're talking royal icing sugar, royal icing sugar cookies. So on one day I make all the cookies

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and I do do the freezing method. I really, really thick. Emma thinks my cookies are too raw on the center.

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That's how I like them. I like them where they're almost bordering on raw. I do not like crispy sugar

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cookies or gingerbread cookies, and I cannot emphasize that strongly enough start. It's her hil to die on,

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so don't start with, it's one of my mini hills to die on. So I like the big, very thick. And then the edges

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have to be perfectly straight up and down sugar cookie. So that's why you have to do the phrasing if you

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care about that. If you don't care and you don't mind, I don't do the freezing edge. Most people don't

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mind a melty edge, but I don't know, I like the precision of it. There's a crafting element to it. And I do

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the exact same thing with my gingerbread cookies. It's basically, I made it to where it's basically the same

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recipe but with gingerbread flavor. But it's the same consistency of cookie. Yeah, it's like a soft

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gingerbread cookie berry gingery. Gingery. Very flavorful. Yes. If you want a very soft, thick gingerbread

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cookie, do our beautiful mess one. If you want a crispy crunchy one, you will have to go elsewhere.

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Google it. Yeah, it's a certain type of thing. And I get it. I get it that there's different, but this is my

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personal passion. And then I decorate them. I like to do them at the same time, the dough day, get them

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all baked and then I just put them in bags or cover the cookie sheets. And then on a separate day,

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hopefully the next day I do the icing because it's just so elaborate. And the icing does take hours and

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hours and it's the kind of thing where if you make one big batch of icing, you can do every single color

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under the rainbow as long as you keep going that day. But if you don't, then you're going to have to redo

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everything the next day. And it is kind of a lot of cleanup. I would just do all the frosting in one day and

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then I like to do the thing where I take a whole cupcake tin and fill it with sprinkles for the kids. It's

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messy. You're not going to get any of that back into their original containers when you're done. But it's a

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once a year type of vibe and I think it's worth it. I think you shouldn't put sprinkles back in once. They've

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been used by kids. I had a rotten sprinkle situation in the past and I will never have a situation like that

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again.

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Emma:

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Even if you make your kids wash your hands before you start, which you probably will, it's just the kids.

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It's like the icing can get in there and it's contaminated. Once it's out, it's out. Yeah. The icing can get in

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there and if anyone takes a little taste of anything, then it just gets a little gross.

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Elsie:

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So Emma's Aunt Judy's sugar cookie recipe is just as good. It's just as perfect. But I would add the

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freezing. So what I do is I freeze and I just make them thicker, a little thicker and then I freeze the whole

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sheet for seven minutes and then I bake it immediately after. And that's the only difference. And that

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step just makes them keep that square edge shape. If you care. Again, most people don't. My third

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passion is thumbprint cookies. So I realized the last few years I was like, I think I'm an almond flavored

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and specifically almond extract flavored because my favorite ice cream of all time and there's really no

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competition, is Jenny's ice cream, brown butter almond brittle. And then these cookies are my true

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favorite cookie. If I'm just going to eat one Christmas cookie for the whole year, it would be this one, the

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thumbprint cookies. So they are like the ones that have a jam center and I think you should get seedless

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Jam. At one point I did try to sugar-free jam. I would never do that again. It's seedless and it's regular

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freaking raspberry jam. Or you could use strawberry, but I'm just going to stay on Rasberry. I like

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rasberry. I feel like there's a tartness. The tartness level's nice. I haven't tried any other flavors really. And

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then, yeah, there's a little bit of icing at the end, so if you do, I personally just still use my sugar cookie

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icing and do it all in one go. Yeah, royal icing. Here's my hot take on almond extract, like baked goods

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that have almond extra. I think it's a sign of taste maturity really whenever you're into almond flavored

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things, because kids almost never are. And I think it's so good, but it's just something you don't

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appreciate until I would say you've matured.

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Emma:

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So if you like almond flavored stuff, unless you're allergic, then you're in the club already. But almond

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flavored stuff is kind of where it's at. Yeah, it's kind of subtle. It's like a subtle nutty. I love it. It almost

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even has a slight savory thing to it. A tiny bit. Really? Yeah. It's more complex I think, than vanilla. And I

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love vanilla. I use vanilla extract all the time and everything, but different has a different thing to it and

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it's really good. Very good.

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Elsie:

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Yay. Okay. Well, we're on the same page with those. I think they're more of a vintage cookie. They are,

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for whatever reason, my sister-in-law always makes them for our summer vacation. I love it for sure. It's

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my favorite thing about the vacation as far as food every single time. I love it. Those are the cookies. And

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then I also, okay, so this year I'm going to redeem myself on some failures maybe, but I have two that I

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have not conquered yet. The first one is the candy cane cookies, and I think I'm just going to do the

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freezing. I think I'm just going to rely on the freezing because the problem is the shape. If they get even a

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little bit flat, they're not cute anymore. So I feel like the freezing might do it, and I think I'm just going to

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use my same sugar cookie dough. I don't even think I'm going to use a recipe. I think I'm just going to

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take some sugar cookie dough, D part of it, red, twist them up, and then do half freeze it that are sugar,

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half that are dipped in sugar and half that are plain, and then freeze the out of them before I bake them.

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And then hopefully they'll be, because I just want those perfect little candy cane shape every time I do it.

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They've turned flat.

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Emma:

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There is also those red and white checkered cookies. I was at the grocery store and I bought a Better

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Homes and Garden. They had a holiday cookie one, the food network had a kids' baking holiday cookie

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one, it's cookies and cupcakes and other things. Anyway, I think it was in the Better Homes and Garden

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one, but I bought 'em both for Marigold because again, I baked so many cookies, but I still see the

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magazine and I'm like, I've got to buy this. It's joyful. It's joyful. We're from the magazine era, but that

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might be a good candy cane alternative. Those looked pretty straightforward in a way. A lot of work.

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Elsie:

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But yeah, I've seen some really cute little slice and bakes that are, is that what you're talking about?

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Yeah, it's a slice and bakes. Like you color it and then you kind of do it in a checkered and then you slice

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it. Oh, the checker. No, I've seen some that are spirals too. And those are all also really cute.

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Emma:

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Pinwheel, A pinwheel cookie.

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Elsie:

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But yeah, something red and white. And then the other one I failed at in the past is the cornflake

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wreaths. I know the reason why when I did it, I had natural food coloring. I'm just going to go nevermind

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on that. I'm just going to go. So traditional, whatever they have in the whatever Walmart selling, I'm

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buying. Yeah, because they turned a mossy green in a bad way. So yeah, Laura made them on. The ones

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that are on our blog are made by Laura, and you can tell they're beautiful. These are craft, these are not

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a baking recipe as much. They do taste great though. I'm sure they do, but they're perfect. So if you want

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to see a picture of how they're supposed to look, she really got them there. Yeah, I think the corn flake

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wreaths are, they're so vintagey. They're so Betty Crocker. They're very cute. So I'd like to try that again

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and actually succeed. But I also, I'm a little scared of hot, even when I make Rice Krispies treats, I'm a

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little nervous. I had a bad experience once with making candy and you know what I mean? Candy

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making is kind of terrifying. Little bit. I'm little scared of anything like making caramel or just anything

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that can burn you severely. So the corn flake, wreaths, they go a little bit on that direction, but not too

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bad. Yeah, that's also a thing you have to be, I've heard myself making popcorn balls before too. You have

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to be really careful.

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Emma:

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Which is not really candy making, but it's like if you start handling it when it's still a little too hot, it can

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really, and it's sticky, so it sticks to you. So it's like you're trying to get off this thing that's too hot.

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Anyway, popcorn balls got me.

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Elsie:

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Yes. And then I'm going to give the honorable mention for the thing I have made the most that I will

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probably for real make every year until I die is Emma's Oreo truffles. I love Oreo truffles and we

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sometimes make them for Halloween and Christmas.

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Emma:

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I didn't put this on my list solely because I saw it was already on your list. Otherwise it would be my

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number one.

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Elsie:

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So okay, the Oreo truffles, this is my controversial take, so I'm kind of like cream cheese averse a little bit.

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I have a very, very small, tiny love for cream cheese and I am not. That's sad. I know, I know, I know. So I

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am not into cheesecake and there's a lot of things I'm not into that dips seem cheesy. So many dips, not

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as much. Yeah, I'm very low, but I like cream cheese when it's just a little tiny bit. So anyway, I love the

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Oreo truffles on the first day. They're made when you can still taste the crunchy texture of the Oreo. And

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then after that, the next day they're kind of a smooth texture and I personally reject them after that. But

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that's my husband's favorite thing, so that's why we make it every year. So I just make sure and eat it on

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the first day. As soon as it's cool.

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Emma:

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I usually eat them just on the first day too, because I eat them all. So there is no second day.

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Elsie:

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Oh my gosh, no. We have them for, I don't know. No, it makes a lot a week or so. It makes a lot.

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Emma:

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I usually make 'em for a party that way I can eat a couple by myself where no one's watching me and

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then I take 'em all to the party and then I eat a few more.

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Elsie:

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Smart. I support it. Alright, so I know we have not given a novel writing update in months and Emma has

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had some huge, huge, huge progress. So let's have some time to just talk about where you are and

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everything that you achieved in 2025.

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Emma:

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So my goal for 2025 was to finish the first draft of the book I've been working on, which is the

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contemporary romance that I'm calling the wedding photographer. We'll see if the title stays forever, but

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I'm calling it that for now and I'm happy to say that I definitely finished that goal and kind of blew it out

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of the water. And in many ways I feel like I blew no other goals out of the water this year. I feel like we

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were beta reading it in the summer. Am I wrong? So you got it done really early. It's way past the first

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shift. Yeah, and I also had this big change this year. I've talked about this, so if you're a listener, but I used

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to have full-time daycare or pre-K for both of our sons and our younger son who's about to be one and a

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half. We decided to start keeping him home this past summer. He's had a lot of rash things and sickness

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things, and we just wanted to see if keeping him home for a year or two might help. So that was a big

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change in my life that definitely very much changed the number of hours that I work. So anyway, I'm

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happy to say though I definitely finished the first draft. I've had a number of beta readers, I think five or

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six, I'd have to look at my list. And then I also got a big edit, so a developmental and inline edit with a

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professional named Kathleen Foxx. You can look her up if you like. She's awesome.

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Elsie:

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Two Xs.

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Emma:

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Yeah, two Xs. Fox X, X, X. Yeah, two Xs only. Anyway, so I just sent her back as I'm recording this, my edits

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to her developmental notes, so all the beta readers, all their developmental notes, I did that as well. So

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what's the difference between developmental and inline or proofreading? Developmental is more the

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big picture. So if a character, it feels flat, if something happens that it feels too soon, it feels too slow, it

00:05:09.000 --> 00:05:10.000
feels too whatever. So pacing stuff, story stuff, plot holes, anything like that, that would be something

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more developmental. And then inline is you don't need to say she said every single time or we need to

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italicize this or that. Inline is similar to proofreading. Proofreading is probably a little more of the nitty

00:05:12.000 --> 00:05:13.000
gritty and it's a little less about style. Inline has more to do with style because there's a slight difference

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between those two things. So anyway, so I'm kind of at the place where my book is definitely past the

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first draft. I guess this is technically the third draft. I'm not really keeping track anymore per se. I found it

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hard to define which draft you're on if you're not rewriting. It's like each time you go through it could be

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considered a draft and that could be like every week if you're like me. Yeah, so exactly I guess you would.

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It's a third draft, but I don't really know exactly. Maybe more than that in a way. But a lot of things have

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gotten moved around. But I did check my word count and I actually only added about 6,000 words,

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Which was less than I thought. I changed quite a few things as far as the timing of things and when

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characters are introduced and I added a couple chapters. So anyway, yeah, so that's where I'm at with

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that. And I was kind of wondering if I might be able to query before the end of the year, but I don't think

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I will be doing that at the beginning of the year. I still need to do inline and then I'd like to get it proofed

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one more time by somebody who hasn't read it at all yet, Just to really make sure continuity stuff,

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because I've kind of moved so many things around. I just want to make sure that everything, if you

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reference, oh, a character had a lunch with a different character and now that lunch isn't there anymore,

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things like that. I'm like one person who hasn't read at all to read it. And I have a gal who's really great at

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proofreading. She actually can do editing. She's also a writer. She's really talented, but she hasn't read it

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at all yet, so I've kind of been saving her. Oh, that's good to read it at the end and proofread it for me.

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She proofread Handmade Murder as well. Anyway, so I'm really excited for that. I also now am at a place

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where I'm a little bit waiting, kind of just sitting around, which is great because holidays are happening

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and there's a lot of kids being home anyway, but I'm also kind of thinking about my next thing. Oh yeah.

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But we'll talk about that. Yeah, no, she was telling me the whole plot of her last Noble when we were on

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our flights a week or two ago. So yeah, there's always a new one cooking when there's another one

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coming out of the oven, right? Yeah, I think that's a part of this little life cycle, which is really cool. Yeah, I

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think too, we talked about this in the episode where we talked about being off social media, but because

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I'm coming up on a year now because be in been a whole year that I've been off social media and I can

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tell that I know, right? It's weird and I can just tell that. So what's running in the back of your mind? What

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are you kind of thinking about a little bit as you're doing mundane task? I mean, if you have a podcast

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going or something like that, then you have that. But if you don't, what's running in the back of your

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mind? And I can tell that for me, it's sort of empty, not inputting a lot of stuff all the time from social

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media. So I'm always thinking about books I want to write or weird scenarios of things that could happen

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in the book that I'm thinking about. And some of them work and some of them don't. Like I'm always

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daydreaming about my creative work and I really like that, but I also have a lot less time to work on it

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than I used to, which I'm fine with. For now. It is just the season.

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Elsie:

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We should do a follow up episode this summer, then about the one year. I think that's really interesting

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and I want to really dig into that. That's its own episode for sure.

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Emma:

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Let's hear your novel writing updates.

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Elsie:

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So I had an amazing year. I feel like this was definitely a huge learning year for me. And I'm going to share

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my first experience querying, which is from last March and April. And then after that I rewrote my novel.

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I'll share about that and then sort of what I learned this year. And I also started writing a new project this

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year, which was because I had a couple times when my book was sent to editors, and when you do that,

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it takes a whole month usually to get it back. So I had a couple of totally free months, so I use that time

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to start something new. So yeah, it's been, I think this has definitely been the year when I learned the

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most. So just to quickly backtrack, I started the surrealist, if we're getting so technical, the first time I

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even had the idea, it was three years ago when I still lived in Nashville. So I started at that time, but I

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don't think, I don't even know if I had anything written when I moved. I don't remember anymore. But I

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definitely had the title and then I had a concept that was completely different for the title. It's weird. I'm

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kind a backwards worker. You'll learn this the more about me, the more you'll see how backwards I am.

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But it is very normal for me to have a title first and then to have many different ideas for what the book

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could be. So at first I found some notes where I had said it was going to be this high school art class. Do

00:06:08.000 --> 00:06:09.000
you remember this? It was like a high school art class story, portraits. They were making portraits and

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they were getting messages from the past or the future or something. I don't even know anymore. So I

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worked on that for a while and it was just not, sometimes you just kind of hit, or I've had several

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concepts where I worked on it for months and then I hit a point where I was like, this is not going to

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move forward. And I started over. So I moved to Missouri and I think I had to plot it a couple times and

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Emma helped me. I've always been horrible at plotting. It is my biggest. You're a very atmospheric writer.

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Thank you. Thank you. It definitely did not come naturally to me, but it can be learned. So anyway, I

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wrote the first version of the surrealist, and I had a coach at the time, I got developmental edit and she

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said it was really close and was very encouraging and I thought maybe it was ready to go. So I started

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querying it in March of 2025. And immediately, so this is a crazy story. I think this is my first time to tell it.

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And I were at a blogger conference in New Orleans and it was kind of like, I think I had decided I wanted

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to query it in this certain month because of astrology. Let's not talk about that. And I had my time there.

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So I think it's because I was there and I had no kids with me. I was like, I'm going to send out my queries

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while you're in this hotel. Got yeah, you can wake up and have a couple hours. And then, yeah. And it

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was just a good supportive atmosphere. I was with my sister, so I did my first batch of queries when we

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were in New Orleans on the first day that I sent the first two queries, I sent them out and I had been

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prepared that it couldn't take months before you even hear back a yes or a no. And it's just like, it's a

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very slow process and don't really expect anything. So I really wasn't. And so I sent them out in the

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morning. We went and got beyes, And when we got back to the hotel after breakfast, I had two emails

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and they were both a full request from the first two agents I ever emailed to read the novel. And I was

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like, what do I do? Should I tell them it's not ready? And she was like, no, no, no, no, no, don't say that.

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Emma:

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Yeah, don't say that.

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Elsie:

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She was like, she told me what to say. I sent them out and I was like, everyone's going to hate me

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because I'm going to get an agent on my first try.

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Emma:

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And I was like, well, I kind of hate you, but that's fine.

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Elsie:

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And so I sent out more and I think I got another request that day. So I knew from the very beginning that

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the concept of the book was desirable to agents. I knew that for sure. Your letter was great too. Thank

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you. The letter was also good. Kathleen Fox, who Emma just mentioned also helped me write my letter.

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She is really great. We've worked with her quite a few times now. Yeah, she's great. Fast forward a little

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bit, and I started getting a lot of reduction from the people who read the manuscript. I don't think

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anyone finished it. I would say I have more proof that no one finished it. I have definitely zero proof that

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anyone ever did. Then Emma didn't even finish it. Sorry for throwing you under the bus, but I already

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said I hated you. I feel like that's fair, Emma. Emma didn't even finish it and she was just kind of like,

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yeah, I think there is more to be done here. So overall, I figured out really quickly. I knew the concept is

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good. I knew that the opening pages were well-written because I was getting a lot of requests. I ended

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up getting eight full requests and I think two partial requests in two days of querying, which is really,

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really uncommonly good. It's very good. So I knew that something was good. And then I also knew that

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something was bad because I was also getting really fast people. Sometimes five days later, a week later,

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they would write back and reject the whole project. They were usually not very specific, but I did get a

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few people who graciously gave me a couple paragraphs and they all said the same thing, which was

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helpful. It's kind of boring, it's kind of boring, it's kind of slow. It's not pacey enough. Something along

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the lines of that the plot isn't plotting. And I was like, okay, I get this. So I knew I was going to do a

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rewrite. So there is common advice, I should say at this point. I knew the common advice that it's better

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to write a whole new novel than to try to rewrite your novel. You already started querying because first

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of all, you already wasted some of the best agents querying them with an undercooked pasta and you're

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not supposed to ever write them again. Which I'm not going to lie, I think I still might, I still have a case

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for it. I'm not sure. I'm going to give that a maybe for now. And then also sometimes it's just easier to

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start fresh than to try to rebuild a robot that's already been built, if that makes sense. I like a lot of robot

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metaphors about my novel. Alright. So anyway, I usually do food metaphors myself. But yeah. Alright. So I

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knew I was going to rewrite just because I was like, the concept I think is too good. I think I just

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undercooked it and I think I just need, I knew the ending was bad, and if you know that ending is bad,

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you probably shouldn't be querying, but I was just like, whatever. I was new to it, I made a few mistakes.

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So next I put all of my remaining queries on freeze. And that's not really true. I still got rejections months

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later that I didn't realize you forgot about. But I put all the requested queries on freeze anyone who had

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requested it and if someone else would've requested it after that, no one did. But I would've said, I'm

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taking a maybe later situation. So that was in, I think early May. And I started rewriting. And first I did

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hire an editor, so I read this craft book I loved. And so I hired this woman to give me a developmental

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edit of what can I do to improve? And I'm just going to say it more, should I say it? Just the more honest

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way. Yeah. You haven't said her name, so I assumed you were going to say it the honest way. Okay. Okay.

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Okay. She just wasn't helpful. And that can sometimes happen. I think that's part of, it's a sad part of why

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if you are into writing and you're listening to a lot of writing advice, there are a lot of people that will say,

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don't pay editors. And it's because of stories like this. Because I paid thousands of dollars for advice and

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she basically just told me over the course of several hours, it's just not good. And she would say here and

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there, things she liked about it that were very detailed. She liked details from it, but she didn't really like

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anything about the plot. She didn't really seem to the characters. So there was really nothing for me to

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build off of. So it was honestly much, much worse than doing nothing. I wish I could have just gone back

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in time and not done that particular edit because it was more just like something I had to overcome

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mentally after that. But I didn't really get the advice. I mean, I'm not going to say there was nothing in

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there that I used. There was some good advice in there, but it wasn't at the point where she had enough

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that she liked about it, that she could tell me how to rewrite it. And she didn't really tell me how to

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rewrite it. She just told me, you have to start over in many different ways of raising it. So I did start over

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and I plotted it and Emma helped me. I always give you plotting credit for that because I'm a good

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brainstormer. She is a great brainstormer. And sometimes you just need someone, I consider Emma my

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critique partner. You have to have someone who you can just sit down for a couple hours and maybe eat

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a sandwich and just be like, what about this? And what about this and what about this and what about

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that for hours? And that's what we did a few times. And so then I started rewriting it in June, I think, and

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I finished it in October, I think. So yeah, rewrote the whole entire book. And it was harder than writing it

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the first time because I had polished, the thing that was sad is that I had polished the first version to

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where there were things about it that I truly loved. There was beautiful writing. It was sort of a beautiful

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house that got built on a bad foundation, so I had to tear it down. It was very painful, but there wasn't

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really a way to fix it without tearing it down. So I did that. So I finished rewriting it, and then I just sort of

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started layering on the improvements. And I think the hardest part about the rewriting is that for

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months, most of the summer, I couldn't tell if I was ever going to love it again. It just felt like it was back

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to the phase of the studs and the concrete. You know what I mean? I have a hard time from my own

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book too, of once I start editing something, I kind of don't like it ever again. Really? It's not new to me.

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So you're not into the editing. See, I'm not into the first draft as much, and I love editing. I could tinker

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with it till I die.

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Emma:

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Yeah, I could tinker, but I'm like, was this better? That's true. Don't dunno.

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Elsie:

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I love this piece of advice. Am I making it better or am I making it different? And I do.

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Emma:

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I can't tell sometimes.

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Elsie:

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Once you get to that point, I think it does mean you're close to done, which is good. I guess that's good

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for you. For me, I know it's still getting better. I know it's still getting better now. So I rewrote the whole

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book and I wrote it in a different POV, which helped a lot to not have the temptation of copying and

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pasting. I really couldn't. I'm sure that was very annoying. But what a writing exercise. I loved it. I loved, I

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actually am really glad I did that part. That's a strong exercise, man, Emma, that talked me into changing

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the POV. And I'm really much happier with it the second time around, obviously. I mean, it's like the

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practice. So I just consider her in every way my learning experience. And at this point, I would love for it

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to become a real book I've promised myself, and I know that I will follow it to the ends of the earth. If

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there's any more possible chances to make it better, I will do those things. But at the same time, if it is

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never a published novel, I wouldn't really grieve that because I learned so much and it was just such a

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wonderful experience. And I had had to do this rewrite. And I'm glad I did the early querying too,

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because I learned that I did have something. It just wasn't a finished perfect novel. But I did have

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something that was good.

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Emma:

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Maybe a good metaphor, since we're doing metaphors, robots, food, let's do one more house building.

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House building. Maybe this was the first house you ever bought and you renovated it yourself and you

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learned a lot, but you were never going to live there forever. You were going to move anyway, but it'll

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always be really special. And the one that you learn the most from, and there's going to be more houses.

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It's just kind of how it's going to go. And there's going to be lots of books that's just kind of inevitable.

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Elsie:

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So anyway, rewrote the whole novel. Now it's being edited, and I'm doing the same editing. Emma just

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talked about doing. We were one month apart, so I was just like the month after her, I had to wait

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months for Kathleen. Then Elsie got in right after me and I was like, that's not true. That's not true. I

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booked it in June. Yeah, I booked it. I think I booked mine in June too. I booked it and then I wrote it to

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try to be ready for the deadline, which I barely was. So anyway, I am going to improve it as much as I can,

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as many times as I can. I remember this one time Brandon Sanderson said, he said, there's people who,

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most people don't write an amazing novel on their first try, but there's people who write five novels and

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they get better and better. And then there's people who rewrite the same novel over and over. And I

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think I kind of am maybe more that person, at least I hope, because it still helps me to give it the

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strongest finish. It can have to believe that it can still be the book I want it to be eventually. But yeah, it

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has definitely been a test of endurance. It was extremely humbling. And getting through several years of

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knowing that I was a beginner at something I wanted to be an expert at was such a good exercise for me

00:08:30.000 --> 00:08:31.000
in developing patience and maturity. I think because we've done a lot of things in our career where we

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were good at it right away. Mostly lc. Yeah. But we stumbled into some things where it just worked for us

00:08:32.000 --> 00:08:33.000
on our first try. And that happens in life. But I think also this sort of thing happens where you really have

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to put in the time. And so I'm glad I had this experience when I did. I'm very proud, I guess I would say

00:08:34.000 --> 00:08:35.000
the biggest thing I learned is that it doesn't really matter what you're writing. For me, I just needed to

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write for a couple years, just all the time, every day, just writing and writing and writing. And I worked on

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several projects in this time, and I have my one finished novel, and then I have my other half finished

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novel. And it wouldn't have mattered though, if I would've written five books that I didn't edit, that

00:08:38.000 --> 00:08:39.000
would've been fine. If I would've written one book that I edited or rewrote five times, that would've

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been fine. You just have to be writing all the time to get better at writing. I feel like also, as soon as I

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started my second book, I learned this is a new metaphor. You're going to love this one. The second book

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is kind of like a second child. I think you're going to be able to use everything you just learned and

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they're completely different. And you're like, oh man. As soon as I started my second novel, I very quickly

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had the sense that it just has a completely different personality and it wants different things of me. And I

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don't think I'm going to have the same struggles. And I don't know yet what struggles I'm going to have

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still on the first draft. And I'm still kind of in the fun exploratory part of it. But I feel like it is so far, much,

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much, much, much easier. Is it a different genre? It's a slightly different genre. So the first one's historical

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fiction, and the second one's the family saga. So it has a lot of different time periods. I mean, it has a

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contemporary, the main story is a contemporary story. I dunno. I didn't have to do all the research. I

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don't know. I don't know. I mean, I did some research, but it was very different. Anyway, so I'm just going

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to finish the surrealist to the highest level I can get it to. And then I am going to query it one more time

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because I do still believe in it. I can't not believe in it. It's just how my brain is just you believe in it. Yeah.

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It's just what I believe in my body. So if there is a chance for it, I will make sure it finds that chance. And

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also if there's not, I have the peace for it. And I actually think that's what manifesting is, is to get to a

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good place. You can't be in that desperate energy. So I'm kind of glad I'm not in that desperate energy

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anymore. I don't feel like it's my only shot in any way whatsoever. I feel like it's just one thing that I'm

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really proud of that I want to see it through. And then I'm happy to move on to another one if that's

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what the universe says to do.

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Emma:

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Yeah, I don't feel very desperate about anything from work.

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Elsie:

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Good.

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Emma:

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My desperate energy is all saved for my children, where I'm like, please eat one thing on your plate,

00:09:08.000 --> 00:09:09.000
please. That's all my desperate energy I have done for work at all.

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Elsie:

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Recently, I have been trying to stop saying, I'm begging you to my kids. I do. Sometimes I'm begging you

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when they just won't listen.

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Emma:

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Yeah, put on your shoes. Where are your socks? Yeah.

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Elsie:

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But yeah, writing novels is a happy, wonderful, joyful experience. And I think it's hard. And I think it's

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also, I think it's brutal too. But I think that overall, if I had to give it a feeling, I would say it's very solitary.

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That's probably the number one. You know what I mean? It's in some moments it's good lonely. It's like

00:09:18.000 --> 00:09:19.000
the introvert's dream. And in some moments it's bad lonely. It's very difficult to find people you can talk

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to about it, Who really understand. Most people just don't understand what a project like this is like or

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what it involves or just kind of anything about it. So yeah, I found it to be a wonderful, wonderful

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experience as far as being creatively fulfilling. It's really up there. So if anyone's thinking of doing it, you

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really can write a novel for fun. You really can. Oh yeah. And it is fun.

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Emma:

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It is fun. Yeah. You can also, if you were like, that's too long. You can write a short story or novella, it's up

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to you. But writing a novel is very fun. It's very, very fun. It's not like running a marathon. It's actually fun

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and pretty easy. A bunch of our friends do their marathon running and I'm roasting them right now, but

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I'm not saying their names. So if they're listening, they'll know. They'll know I'm roasting them. So I'm

00:09:32.000 --> 00:09:33.000
working on my next book, which is going to be another contemporary romance I'm calling it right now,

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Sundaes are for lovers.

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Elsie:

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Ice cream sundaes.

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Emma:

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Ice cream sundae. It's like rivals to lovers. That's the trope. And it's about the son of an era of a custard

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company and the daughter of this kind of quirky, healthy non-dairy ice cream thing. So anyway, it's cute.

00:09:39.000 --> 00:09:40.000
It's very, very cute. It's going to be very fun. But I'm also kind of like, maybe I should just read my notes

00:09:40.000 --> 00:09:41.000
app of all my book ideas. I'm always accumulating random ideas in part because I am one of those

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writers where I like to write in a lot of different genres just because I like to read a lot of genres. I just

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have a notes app on my phone that's like book ideas. And some of them are pretty good and some of

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them are not good. Some of them are un You want to readed? I think I only have a few in here. 1, 2, 3, 4,

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5. Yeah, I only have five in here. And the first three are contemporary romance ideas. So I'll just skip

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those because you guys know I write that. I'm going to write a whole bunch of those. I'll tell you the

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other two that are very random one's horror and one's like a future. So the horror idea is older sisters

00:09:47.000 --> 00:09:48.000
buy a dilapidated inn to become an old lady retirement home. But it's haunted and they love it, but also

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they die. That's why I wrote, that's the whole idea.

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Elsie:

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I want that book. I want that book. I'm in on that.

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Emma:

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And here's the other one. I'm literally just reading these out of my notes. The other one is dystopian

00:09:53.000 --> 00:09:54.000
Future slash Alternate Reality where women control sports, but only men play. They're given money and

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prizes. If they do well, they all, the men have no rights otherwise. Behind the scenes, some of the

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owners, prominent women sleep with the athletes and the athletes have no choice. But this is a love

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story between one powerful woman who falls for a powerless but great athlete man, that's the whole

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idea.

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Elsie:

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That one I'm going to need a little more selling on.

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Emma:

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Yeah, it's got sports and romance. It's not really your thing. I could not imagine you wanting to read that

00:10:02.000 --> 00:10:03.000
book. No offense. So those are two things else. Not if they made that into a movie, it would be kind of

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action movie and kind.

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Elsie:

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But I do have a thing for dystopian, I do have a thing for dystopian.

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Emma:

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It's not dystopian in the way that you like them at all. On the art side. It's not artsy, dystopian. It's more

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like divergent or hunger games or that kind of thing, which is cool. And I love those. But fun.

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Elsie:

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Okay. Should I say a future teaser?

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Emma:

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Yeah, I don't even know if I'll write those. I think it's fun to just accumulate when the idea hits me and

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I'm like, that really would be fun to write or hard or interesting. I just put it in my notes app and maybe

00:10:18.000 --> 00:10:19.000
it'll be become a book one day and maybe it won't. If someone listens to this and you're like, I'm going to

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write that, go for it. Enjoy. Yeah, that's true. Doesn't scare me at all. I don't care. Well, it shouldn't

00:10:20.000 --> 00:10:21.000
because I've seen, so there's a term for this, but when two people write the same book, it's different. It

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doesn't matter because they're different. Exactly. And they might love them both. They actually might

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help each other. They might both be great. So I'm like, yeah, whatever. That's fine.

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Elsie:

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Yeah. Okay. So for my next book, so I call my next book for, its because I didn't want to put the name out

00:10:25.000 --> 00:10:26.000
yet. I am a little superstitious about this one for some reason.

00:10:26.000 --> 00:10:27.000
Emma:

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Don't say the name then.

00:10:28.000 --> 00:10:29.000
Elsie:

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The name, I call it Project Lighthouse because set in a lighthouse. So it's kind of inspired by the Dutch

00:10:30.000 --> 00:10:31.000
House, by M Patchett, where you have a family saga that's tied to a family home. So my characters live in

00:10:31.000 --> 00:10:32.000
a New England lighthouse and there's generations of women. And it's also really inspired by a hundred

00:10:32.000 --> 00:10:33.000
years of Solitude, because after I read that book, I got obsession level. The book's incredible. I think this

00:10:33.000 --> 00:10:34.000
is a good way to start a book, is I just want to write a book like that, but different but like that in that

00:10:34.000 --> 00:10:35.000
spirit, I guess. Yeah. Anyway, I've been working on that one. That's definitely my next one. And then after

00:10:35.000 --> 00:10:36.000
that, the next one after it is so unhinged. So I'll just say that it is a literary sci-fi book. It is a robot book.

00:10:36.000 --> 00:10:37.000
And I love a robot book. Yeah, it is definitely my greatest high concept. Concept. So in commercial fiction,

00:10:37.000 --> 00:10:38.000
there's this thing you're supposed to try to do called High concept. And I think the greatest high concept

00:10:38.000 --> 00:10:39.000
book is Jurassic Park.

00:10:39.000 --> 00:10:40.000
Emma:

00:10:40.000 --> 00:10:41.000
I love Jurassic Park.

00:10:41.000 --> 00:10:42.000
Elsie:

00:10:42.000 --> 00:10:43.000
Yeah. I'll never miss a chance to talk about how much I love Jurassic Park, the novel, but also the movie

00:10:43.000 --> 00:10:44.000
and also everything. Maybe not the Spinoffs, I dunno. We don't need to talk about that. Yeah, leave that

00:10:44.000 --> 00:10:45.000
out of it. Let's just talk about the 1990s Jurassic Park. But it's just such an, it inspires me so much

00:10:45.000 --> 00:10:46.000
because it was my first adult novel that I read as a child, which I think leaves its mark on you in a special

00:10:46.000 --> 00:10:47.000
way. And it also, I think that in sci-fi, it's like a moment where people somehow believe that the science

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in it is real, and the science in it is like it's loose is no, it is fake, but it doesn't matter because he made it

00:10:52.000 --> 00:10:53.000
real for you. What's science fiction? Yeah. So I just think that's the most beautiful thing you can do for a

00:10:53.000 --> 00:10:54.000
reader. I think it's so cool. So anyway, I want to do a robot book, but in a beautiful way. In a beautiful

00:10:54.000 --> 00:10:55.000
artsy pretty way. Yeah. I'm going to scream. Okay. I love robot books. So yeah, plans for the new year. I'm

00:10:55.000 --> 00:10:56.000
just going to try to write my family saga and finish the surrealist. I'd be happy with that. If I'm at this

00:10:56.000 --> 00:10:57.000
exact same place again next year with a new book where it's finishing one, starting one, that would be

00:10:57.000 --> 00:10:58.000
totally perfect.

00:10:58.000 --> 00:10:59.000
Emma:

00:10:59.000 --> 00:11:00.000
Yeah, I'm working on my Sundaes for Lovers, but my side project is my football book I'm kind of working

00:11:00.000 --> 00:11:01.000
on, which is.

00:11:01.000 --> 00:11:02.000
Elsie:

00:11:02.000 --> 00:11:03.000
She didn't even mention her profile book.

00:11:03.000 --> 00:11:04.000
Emma:

00:11:04.000 --> 00:11:05.000
No. I even mention book and it is writing a book about college football. It's not a romance, it's just about

00:11:05.000 --> 00:11:06.000
college football. It's like, have you ever watched a sports movie? Oh yeah. It's still like a feel good genre.

00:11:06.000 --> 00:11:07.000
Elsie:

00:11:07.000 --> 00:11:08.000
Friday Night Lights is a comfort show for a lot of people.

00:11:08.000 --> 00:11:09.000
Emma:

00:11:09.000 --> 00:11:10.000
Yeah. The movie in the book are a little bit heavier, and Friday Night Lights is actually nonfiction. A lot of

00:11:10.000 --> 00:11:11.000
people forget that because they made so many things based off of it. But at any rate, but I'm talking

00:11:11.000 --> 00:11:12.000
about the TV show. Yeah, yeah. At any rate, I do think that the sports genre, there's all sorts of things,

00:11:12.000 --> 00:11:13.000
just like any genre, but it can be very feel good and I'm wanting to do one. That's the type of thing they

00:11:13.000 --> 00:11:14.000
would turn into a movie that would be PG 13. It's like definitely a feel good type thing. I love it. And I just

00:11:14.000 --> 00:11:15.000
like college football, so I think it'd be fun.

00:11:15.000 --> 00:11:16.000
Elsie:

00:11:16.000 --> 00:11:17.000
Yeah. Emma goes to the, you've talked about that before in the podcast, right?

00:11:17.000 --> 00:11:18.000
Emma:

00:11:18.000 --> 00:11:19.000
Yeah.

00:11:19.000 --> 00:11:20.000
Elsie:

00:11:20.000 --> 00:11:21.000
She goes to the football games and she has her own little football costume outfit.

00:11:21.000 --> 00:11:22.000
Emma:

00:11:22.000 --> 00:11:23.000
Yep. My sons are very into it, especially our older son. He talks about football and plays football every

00:11:23.000 --> 00:11:24.000
day in our house inside the house. We're just waiting until something breaks and then we're going to say,

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okay, no more football in the house. So, I mean, we did break the chandelier, but that was already

00:11:29.000 --> 00:11:30.000
broken, so yeah. Who cares?

00:11:30.000 --> 00:11:31.000
Elsie:

00:11:31.000 --> 00:11:32.000
You're new chandeliers is so much cuter.

00:11:32.000 --> 00:11:33.000
Emma:

00:11:33.000 --> 00:11:34.000
Yeah, it all worked out.

00:11:34.000 --> 00:11:35.000
Elsie:

00:11:35.000 --> 00:11:36.000
Okay. We have an incredible, gorgeous, beautiful suggestion from a listener named Mary, and this is

00:11:36.000 --> 00:11:37.000
going to be so fun. I would say this is the single most exciting email we've ever sent. Oh, I loved it. I was

00:11:37.000 --> 00:11:38.000
like, yes. Anyway, it starts off Anyway. I don't know what came before it. Sorry, Mary. Anyway, I wanted

00:11:38.000 --> 00:11:39.000
to suggest an episode along the lines of Debate club where listeners can write in their hot takes and you

00:11:39.000 --> 00:11:40.000
can debate them. Nothing serious. Okay. Give me a little serious, I'm talking along the lines of things you

00:11:40.000 --> 00:11:41.000
already talk about. Books, movies, trends, et cetera. I say this because I was recently inspired to read

00:11:41.000 --> 00:11:42.000
Practical Magic and I hated it. That's hilarious. I would debate that to my death. Put me on that podium. I

00:11:42.000 --> 00:11:43.000
watched the movie right after, and I feel strongly that the movie is actually better than the book for

00:11:43.000 --> 00:11:44.000
once. The movie is really good.

00:11:44.000 --> 00:11:45.000
Emma:

00:11:45.000 --> 00:11:46.000
So the movie is good. Better, I dunno, good, yes.

00:11:46.000 --> 00:11:47.000
Elsie:

00:11:47.000 --> 00:11:48.000
The book is great and the rest of the series is even better. Anyway, I'd love to hear the Silly Hills that we

00:11:48.000 --> 00:11:49.000
would all die on. Okay, so we're doing this. I think we can do this episode probably for January if

00:11:49.000 --> 00:11:50.000
everyone starts sending in their piping hot takes this week. So it's podcast@beautifulmess.com and you

00:11:50.000 --> 00:11:51.000
just send us, it can be anything. I will say a couple of limitations. I don't want anything that's like celebrity

00:11:51.000 --> 00:11:52.000
gossip, that's mean spirited. I don't want anything that's cruel. We won't put anything on that's talking

00:11:52.000 --> 00:11:53.000
bad about women. But other than that, honestly, just give us whatever. Give us anything in the world. A

00:11:53.000 --> 00:11:54.000
hot take. As long as it's harmless, I don't care. I think it's so fun and it's one of my favorite things about

00:11:54.000 --> 00:11:55.000
social media is when people take these incredibly strong stances on stupid hills to die on.

00:11:55.000 --> 00:11:56.000
Emma:

00:11:56.000 --> 00:11:57.000
Yeah. The sillier the better. I mean, tell me why eating steak medium rare is for losers, whatever.

00:11:57.000 --> 00:11:58.000
Elsie:

00:11:58.000 --> 00:11:59.000
And I guess the good part is since we're going to debate it, we'll make sure that each side gets

00:11:59.000 --> 00:12:00.000
represented. Yeah. Maybe we'll just both have to take different sides and that's the rule. We can do that.

00:12:00.000 --> 00:12:01.000
I will say neither one of us, we were not in speech and debate.

00:12:01.000 --> 00:12:02.000
Emma:

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Yes, I was. I debated. I had a briefcase.

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Elsie:

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You had a briefcase.

00:12:09.000 --> 00:12:10.000
Emma:

00:12:10.000 --> 00:12:11.000
Wow.

00:12:11.000 --> 00:12:12.000
Elsie:

00:12:12.000 --> 00:12:13.000
Wait, what?

00:12:13.000 --> 00:12:14.000
Emma:

00:12:14.000 --> 00:12:15.000
Yeah. Wow.

00:12:15.000 --> 00:12:16.000
Elsie:

00:12:16.000 --> 00:12:17.000
What?

00:12:17.000 --> 00:12:18.000
Emma:

00:12:18.000 --> 00:12:19.000
Yeah, I did Lincoln Douglas debate. Are you serious right now?

00:12:19.000 --> 00:12:20.000
Elsie:

00:12:20.000 --> 00:12:21.000
I didn't know about this.

00:12:21.000 --> 00:12:22.000
Emma:

00:12:22.000 --> 00:12:23.000
Yes.

00:12:23.000 --> 00:12:24.000
Elsie:

00:12:24.000 --> 00:12:25.000
Okay. I did nothing like this, but I'm willing to do it. It'll be fun. You'll have to teach me the, is there rules

00:12:25.000 --> 00:12:26.000
to it?

00:12:26.000 --> 00:12:27.000
Emma:

00:12:27.000 --> 00:12:28.000
Yes, there's rules.

00:12:28.000 --> 00:12:29.000
Elsie:

00:12:29.000 --> 00:12:30.000
Okay. podcast@abeautifulmust.com. Send us your hot takes burning scolding hot. Okay, we're going to

00:12:30.000 --> 00:12:31.000
pass it off to a joke or a fact with Nova. Hey Nova. What do you have for us this week?

00:12:31.000 --> 00:12:32.000
Nova:

00:12:32.000 --> 00:12:33.000
A joke.

00:12:33.000 --> 00:12:34.000
Elsie:

00:12:34.000 --> 00:12:35.000
A joke, is a themed joke by chance.

00:12:35.000 --> 00:12:36.000
Nova:

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Christmas.

00:12:41.000 --> 00:12:42.000
Elsie:

00:12:42.000 --> 00:12:43.000
Christmas theme. Okay. I'm ready.

00:12:43.000 --> 00:12:44.000
Nova:

00:12:44.000 --> 00:12:45.000
Why did the snowman get lost? Why? Because he didn't snow his way home. Have a good week and

00:12:45.000 --> 00:12:46.000
Merry Christmas.

00:12:46.000 --> 00:12:47.000
Elsie:

00:12:47.000 --> 00:12:48.000
Alright everyone, thank you so much for joining us this week. Email us anytime at

00:12:48.000 --> 00:12:49.000
podcast@beautifulmess.com. You can also leave us a voicemail at 417-893-0011. We'll be back next

00:12:49.000 --> 00:12:50.000
week.

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