Get Booked – Julia Boggio, Shooters 260623

Hello and welcome to today's Get Booked. I'm Hazel and a huge book fan, so I love doing this show. Get Booked is all about talking to authors, chatting about anything and everything books related, and all the joy enlightenment, and escape that good books can provide. Sit back and let us entertain you with a different guest each week, sharing who they are, what they do, and what inspires them. This week on the show, we are going to be focusing on the author Giulia Boggio with her book Shooters that was released on the 11th of March of this year. You can buy the book for £9.99 or you can get it on Kindle for £1.99. Super quick and easy. Now Shooters is about Stella, who is determined to become a successful wedding photographer, even if it means learning from Connor Knight, a wedding shooter with sexy rock star status and an ego to match. Burned by an affair that ended her last career, Stella should know better than to get entangled with Connor during a residential course in a romantic French château. But while his arrogance turns her off, his talents turn her on. Ah, we know that one. Their clashes lead to a whirlwind of passion, but Stella struggles to frame a future with a man who's come to distrust happily ever afters and hides a softer side behind his image. Can Stella learn from her past mistakes and teach Connor about real love before he disappears from the picture? You can find out a little bit more about today's author, Julia Boggio, at julia.boggio.com. I love doing Get Booked. It's all about opening discussions and offering support by the incredible writing community out there. Come and join us and get involved. And if you want to catch up on previous shows, you can at womensradiostation.com/shows/getbooked. And on our SoundCloud. You can also check out my latest book reviews on my website at hazelbutterfield.com. Coming up next week, want to put in the diary, we're going to be chatting to the author D.C.R. Bond, who has written Sarah Needs Saving. Sarah never expected to be blackmailed, especially not by someone so close. She hadn't expected to be receiving criminal hush money either. As a respectable Exeter University professor's wife, neither were really the done thing, but super organised Sarah has it all under control. Of course she has, or so she thinks. With its frenetic pacing and confounding plot twists, the gripping family drama Sarah Needs Saving is a captivating domestic thriller, certain to entertain you as Sarah's life descends into chaos and surprise you with its final hidden-in-plain-sight plot twist. Set in rural North Devon, the family saga shines a light on baby boomer issues, the care of elderly relatives, passing of wealth to the next generation, dementia, probate and inheritance, and following multiple marriages. It's a roller coaster ride. Or is it just a cautionary tale? I'm so looking forward to chatting to the author next week. Hmm. Right now, time on Get Booked for today's guest, Giulia Boggio. With the book Shooters, which has become a bestseller. What a fun book. The majority of industries have an incestuous undertone at the best of times, and photography certainly is no different. Well, apart from the whole intimate nature of the work, the romantic settings and celebrity lifestyle, but obviously other than that. Sometimes we need to break patterns in our behavior to get different results, to break away from what's not working for us. But then again, it isn't always down to our behavior, and we need to explore the possibility of something new not going the same way as past relationships. Stella in Shooters is a deliciously feisty, sexy, warm, and driven, yet a totally clumsy character who is determined to become a successful wedding photographer, so long as she doesn't become distracted by all the patterns of behavior that has not served her well. The whole book is full of strong characters, especially the women, and yet they all have their fallible quirks that just makes them human and relatable. As I said before, it's a great fun book. Julia, thank you so much for joining us on Get Booked. Yeah, no worries. Thanks for having me on, and congratulations on becoming a bestseller. Thank you. Yeah, you've done so well. We're going to talk a little bit, um, later on in the show about how you have done some incredible marketing for this book. But first of all, if you just kick off telling our listeners a little bit about you, who are you? Oh goodness, who am I? I am— that's a big question for this time in the morning. Now, so I'm Julia Bojo. I'm originally from New Jersey, but I've now lived in the UK for longer than I lived in America, actually. And I started my working life as a copywriter, and I did that for about 8 years, and then discovered photography on a 6-month trip through South America. And so when I got back from that, I retrained as a photographer and I entered the wonderful world of wedding photography, which is of course where I've drawn a lot of my knowledge for, for writing this book. So yeah, and that's it. I'm a mother. I've got 2 kids. I'm also, well, I don't know if you want to talk about this, But I'm a YouTube, I was an original YouTube star as well. Yes, we do wanna, do not think we're getting away with it. We will be talking about YouTube for sure. Okay, well I'll just leave that little Easter egg for later then. But yeah, no, that's me in a nutshell. Brilliant. Yeah, well so Stella, the character, I must say I had so much fun and this is what I love about books because you can find out so much about each other and about different industries, and we can talk about how we can make mistakes in life and how we can overcome them. And then sometimes we give ourselves— we put ourselves under so much pressure to succeed or keep on going over past mistakes that sometimes aren't even necessarily something that's just completely down to ourselves. Um, and I think Shooters really covers that, and it's, it's super fun. And I like finding out a little bit more about the photography industry as well. And yeah, I think, I think you can, you can always tell when a book has been written by somebody who knows the industry that they're talking about. It's like, you know, like when doctors watch Grey's Anatomy and they're probably like, oh, that didn't happen that way. Or, you know, that kind of thing. I didn't, I wanted the details to be right in this book and I definitely know the industry. So Yeah, definitely do. I, I want to know, what was your— what was the process like for writing this book? Did you have to do any additional research? Did you have to kind of call in some favors from some of your friends in the industry? Well, I mean, I do— I'm always putting questions on Facebook for all my photography friends, like, oh, can you tell me a story from a wedding where this happened or that happened? And, and they're always too happy to, uh, to pour their hearts out to me. But, but yeah, no, a lot of it has just come from my own experience and, and then a lot from my imagination as well. I mean, there's nothing in the book that actually happens, you know, was 100% what happened in real life. But, but yeah, no, it was an interesting process and I wrote it over the pandemic. So I mean, I couldn't go to Cliveden to look around and remember the details. I mean, I've probably got some stuff wrong there, but I had to use my memory and the internet from the time that I shot a wedding at Clivedon. And also, you know, the lakes in Italy for that section of the book. I just had to use the internet and my own memories of Italy. So it was, yeah, harder to do during the pandemic. I bet it was quite helpful actually. I mean, first of all, writing a book keeps you out of trouble in the pandemic, but also imagining all these fantastic destinations and locations even in the UK. When you couldn't actually go to them. I suppose it was part of your little mental health journey, really. Yeah, I agree. It was, it was very good for me to be able to sort of escape the hell of the pandemic. But also I took a, I took a writing course over the time. So I was doing the Curtis Brown 6-month selective course and I met my writing tribe through that, which was extremely helpful in, you know, getting through the pandemic and, and, you know, honing my craft as a writer as well. So Yeah, that, that will always be part of my, my memory of that time. Well, talking about honing your craft, I mean, when you release a book, quite often you get PR people involved just to kind of help you connect with many different people who can help you promote your book. But you have done the research, and I, I think I recall you saying in the past that you've done little courses as well on how to market yourself and your book in a fun way, in the same way that all these 19, 20-year-olds use TikTok. I mean, I would love to be able to do some of the things that you've put out on social media. There's so much fun, but it works, doesn't it? Yeah. Yeah. Well, I mean, it's another creative outlet for me. And that's the thing, because I've got a degree in marketing and, you know, I was in advertising for a long time and I ran my own business. So if I can't market something, there's something wrong. But But yeah, I mean, when you look at something like Instagram and whatnot, I think the content that people really relate to is when you're creating something entertaining but also making a point at the same time. And since I've started doing those videos, I can tell that I've definitely had an uptick in followers and whatnot. Long may it continue. But yeah, they're fun as well. Marketing should be fun. That's, that's my number one you know, saying about marketing. I think when it comes across as being fun, it helps people want to engage as well because there are so many hints and tips and tricks that people use out there to market themselves. And yeah, you use it for fun and just have, have a great time. And it's definitely worked for you. She just seems to be everywhere. And I've seen various pictures of people, especially photographers, in random destinations reading. Well, that was part of my campaign. Campaign. So, you know, before the book launched, I reached out to my photography network and I asked certain people, you know, would you take pictures of yourself reading Shooters for my launch campaign? And then the idea was that everybody would put this picture up on, you know, social media at the same time on the day of my launch and then tell people about the book and ask them to buy it. And I dropped the price of the book as well on digital. And so they all did this. And I have to say, I mean, the photos that they came up with were amazing. I mean, they weren't just iPhone photos, they were, they were really professional photos. And, and I'll always be grateful to them all for taking the time to, to do that for me. I think it, yeah, it's lovely. And, and obviously, as you said, you've written about what you know. You know photography, but also another theme in the book is dancing. Oh yes, here we go. You are a dancer. You are, you know what's happening now. You are a dancer. And I do believe that you reenacted a dance scene on your— was it your wedding day? Yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, but first of all, I think calling me a dancer is probably stretching the truth a little bit. I did a dance at my wedding. You knew how to dance though. It was a professional dance, something that you knew something about. You absolutely smashed it out the park. It was the famous dance from Dirty Dancing. Yeah, yeah. And so, and it was back when, you know, not everybody stood there throughout every waking moment with their phones. So there was, um, so it's quite a, a really simple video that kind of got picked up on YouTube and it, and it did really well. If it was now, it would have, you know, millions of views on TikTok and Instagram and it'd be absolutely everywhere. But it was something that went viral back before things really Things go viral so easily. Exactly. Yeah. It's like the meaning of viral has really changed in the past, you know, 15 years since we got married or 17 years. My God, it's been a long time. But yeah, back then viral was something that you sent around to your friends, a video that was on YouTube, and then you talked about it around the water cooler. And nowadays there's just so much viral content that, you know, nothing really gets picked out out of the crowd anymore unless it's, you know, really different. But back then, yeah, we put it up and the next day we got a call from the Metro and we had like 200 views and we were so excited. And we put it up 2 years after we actually got married. So, you know, it wasn't filmed with the purpose of going on to YouTube. We just put it up to show friends. And so we did. We had 200 views, Metro calls and want to do a piece on us. Fine. So we did it. And the next day my husband got onto the tube to, you know, to go to work. And, but there were no metros, they were all out. So he got a Times and suddenly was reading it on the tube and he just looked over at the woman next to him who was reading the Metro. And, you know, we expected like a column inch, you know, not, not much. I mean, not a big story. It was an entire page. It was the entire, you know, third page. I was a page 3 girl. And he's just like, he's like, 'Can I have your newspaper? Can I switch with you?' And she's like, 'Why?' And he's like, 'Because that's me.' And she's like, 'Oh my God.' And then he got off the tube at the next stop to call me and tell me about this. And I said, 'Well, you're not gonna believe this, but Richard and Judy have been on the phone.' And it just went from there. It just went crazy and it got crazier and crazier. And then, you know, and then we went to Greece to kind of to get away from all the celebritizing, you know. Oh, downtime. As you do. And the, you know, playing landed, put my phone back on, checked my messages, and we had a message from the Oprah Winfrey Show. And as you do, as, as you do. And, uh, and they were like, yeah, we want to fly you out, we're doing an episode about this new YouTube thing. And, uh, and so yeah, they flew us out and, uh, they kept saying, oh, just learn, just learn half the first half of the dance, that's fine, you just have you do the first dance. And I kept thinking But it's the second half that's the best part. But anyway, so we did that and, you know, she calls us up on stage and she's chatting to us and then she's like, well, you know, we don't wanna talk to you, we wanna see you dance. And I'm like, okay. So the music starts and it start, I remember it started in the wrong place. So we kind of had like to catch up because we're not professional dancers and, you know, it kind of threw us off. So anyway, we're trying to do the dance and the audience is like politely clapping along And suddenly they just start going absolutely crazy. And I'm just thinking to myself that I'm not that good. And, uh, I just look over my husband's shoulder and I see Patrick Swayze walking towards us. Now, bizarrely, I've actually watched this video and, um, I mean, I, I've got a cold heart, you know, it takes a lot for me to well up. And I was like, This is so powerful because it's not staged in any way on your part. You're like, what? Your husband has to kind of nip out the way because Patrick Swayze takes over for the rest of the dance. And it's just— I think I pushed him out of the way. I'm like, you go over there, darling. I'm dancing with Patrick Swayze. So yeah, that was a good day. And then— but no, my husband doesn't like to be pushed aside. So after I finished dancing with Patrick, he yells across the stage, he says, Patrick, let's do the lift. And he literally launches all 12 stone of himself at Patrick Swayze. And he like kind of went down on one knee and caught James in his arms. They didn't do the full lift, obviously. My husband's very heavy. But, but yeah, it was, it was a great moment. I mean, that's one hell of a claim to fame, isn't it? Yeah. Yeah. But so of course I had to put a dance in the book. Yeah, I'm— my idea, I think I'm gonna put a Dirty Dancing Easter egg in like each of my, my books from now on. I've just, I'm just about, I'll probably finish book 2 today actually after this interview. And, and there's already, there's a Dirty Dancing Easter egg in there. So, you know, brilliant. Well, no, I did, I was doing a little bit of research and I popped onto juliebojo.com and I didn't realize until earlier this week that there is, it's a trilogy and there's another book coming out, I think the 31st of August. Is that correct? Yes. It's, yeah, Chasing the Light. Yeah, it's almost finished today. Yeah. And that will be out. If I can bring it forward a little bit, I will, because, you know, being self-published, I can do that. But yeah, no, it's a really exciting book and it follows the story of the assistant of Connor Knight. So Krish, I don't know if you remember. Yeah. Krish Kapadia. So it's a second chance story about what happens when his ex-girlfriend comes onto the scene She's a wedding videographer. He's a wedding photographer, but he's seriously involved with somebody, about to propose to somebody else. And, and she has her own secrets as well. So it's, it's a really— it's a, it's actually a story that's really close to my heart and probably even in a way more personal than, than the last one. So yeah, no, I'm excited to put it out into the world. Now, are you going to— is Stella and Connor going to be featuring much in this? Yes. Yes. She actually does have a storyline as well. They have a storyline. Which kind of leads the breadcrumbs to book 3. And she has a point of view as well. So there's actually 3 points of view in the book, which I know is probably a little bit out of the ordinary for a romance novel. But, you know, it is part of the trilogy. And I think that, you know, from friends that have read it, they say that it's really nice to be back in Stella's head for those chapters. So, um, feels like an old friend. Good, good. And does it have the same kind of, um, fallibility of characters and something that we can relate to in that kind? I love the clumsiness of Stella because, you know, I'm that person, you know. Sometimes, sometimes if I actually make an effort and I brush my hair and I make sure my clothes aren't full of dog hair, I can look quite glamorous. But, but I literally, even no matter how glamorous I can try and make myself look you know, I'm that person that will say something ridiculous, completely fall over absolutely nothing, you know, I can slip on anything, um, and I can suddenly just think I'm so cool, say something ridiculous, and then go and hide in the toilet for a bit while I undo how ridiculous I just came across. And I love it that you kind of focus on the fact that we all do that. Yeah, we all do that, totally. I completely agree with you, and I think that's why Stella is so relatable, um, because she, you I didn't want to write a perfect heroine. And I think that, you know, you've read the book, you know that she's made mistakes in her life, which, which funnily enough, some people really don't like. Yeah, they don't like that she's more real. But to me, that is, that's what makes my stories different. And also that just makes people, I mean, loads of people have just said, I just feel like she's a real person. And that's exactly what I was going for. You know what, people do make mistakes, and people have quite strong opinions on when there's maybe certain affairs involved, but it's, it's always the women that come off a lot worse. I know. And yes, we, we all make mistakes, especially in our youth sometimes. It's not necessarily, you know, it's not, it's not an excuse, but sometimes if you own up to it, you know, it's the people that don't own up to it that you need to be worried about. You know, they're the ones that probably are more judgmental because they're trying to cover something up. Exactly. And I— it always astounds me how judgmental women can be of other women as well. Um, you know, I mean, yeah, exactly. You know, I mean, and, and they completely ignore— you know, the people who have criticized have ignored the fact that, you know, he was her boss and he almost groomed her to fall into this affair with him. Um, yeah, she made a choice, but, you know, there were— there's always two sides to every story. Um, but yeah, yeah, definitely. And I love it that you're, um, self-publishing because, um, the kind of the traditional publishing route, not only is it virtually impossible to get a contract unless you've got a ridiculous kind of social media following or there's nepotism going on or whatnot, but even if you do manage to get yourself a publishing contract, you know, if you get a book, if you get your book out within the 18 months, even after it's been finished. It's an absolute miracle. It takes forever. And self-publishing is really a strong contender these days, isn't it? It's a fantastic option. Oh, exactly. It's moved on so much from where it used to be. And, um, I mean, there's still, there's still a lot of snobbery out there about, oh, it's self-published. Like, it's one of the first questions people ask you, oh, did— who's published it? And when you say self-published, you actually see, you can see this little, like, this snobby little light in their eyes. And, um, and it just makes me just want to slap them because, you know, my— this book is, is as good as any traditionally published book. And the only reason it didn't get traditionally published was, um, because there are a lot of the publishers my agent sent it to said, uh, that they already had a wedding-themed book on their shelves. And because marketing, you know, will say, oh no, we can only have one, then they wouldn't take it on. And then the other thing I got was that they were looking for younger writers who had a better chance of going viral on TikTok. And because I'm— how old am I? I'm 48 now. God, I'm almost 49. Help me. But, you know, but, you know, I mean, that's— I took great umbrage at that because, you know, I don't think that's a good reason to reject a book. And, you know, from the reviews, I know it's a good book. And I also know that A lot of people have said that it's not your typical rom-com, but they love it for that. So, so yeah, I've got my own place on the shelf. That's, that's— Ironically though, there's— reading has become so much more popular since COVID because people have not only realized that they need the headspace and that it was something to do in the pandemic that was a bit easier and we had time to do it. But we need to be reading more to kind of get ourselves off tech and kind of Ctrl+Alt+Delete the damage we do to our brains from this constant blue light, instantaneous kind of gratification. And I think that the younger generation are struggling to read more. There are some, there are, don't get me wrong, some people out there that are, you know, of all ages love reading, but it's harder for the younger generation because if they're not on these social medias. They're not necessarily connecting with their peers. And so that's actually quite a visceral choice to make. And it's a shame because it's also the generation that wants to talk about— that wants to engage with their mental health more, yet they're not doing what is required. No, exactly, exactly. Engaged properly. So do we want to be reading books by people who are not reading and have not lived the life to kind of understand their mistakes. No, exactly. I completely agree. And I mean, you know, I've got my podcast, Two Lit Chicks, and, you know, we were interviewing an author recently named Jodie Chapman, and she wrote a book called Oh Sister, and it's based on her experiences as a Jehovah's Witness, which she no longer is. And I read this book and it was interesting because, I mean, You read books for empathy, you know, so that you can really see what other people have experienced. And because when you read a book, you, you, and you're taking it in, you do experience it as though you are the character. That's been proven in scientific studies. And it was funny because while I was researching for that episode, a Jehovah's Witness actually came to my door. And usually I would slam the door in her face. Not that horrible, but, you know, politely slam the door. But I actually engaged her in a conversation and because I just kept thinking, oh God, this could be the characters in the book. But yeah, it was, it was, it was interesting. But, you know, we, we quickly realized we were not going to make much headway with this because I'm an atheist and she is, you know, obviously Jehovah's Witness. But, but yeah, no, it's, it's interesting how reading does give you that empathy. And God knows the world needs a bit more empathy right now. Doesn't it just? And I think if we just understand each other a bit more, we can be less judgmental. And also, you don't have to be going through something to need to actually understand the fights that other people go through. And just, yeah, yeah, it's— this is the joy of reading. And whether it's fiction or non-fiction, there are so many different ways that we're, you know, for some people they might want to read Shooters because they want to switch off. I mean, it's a fantastic beach read. But maybe they want to find out a little bit more about the photography industry because again, you are going to find out a bit more about the industry because of this book. You're going to find out about people who make mistakes and how they kind of overcome them and how that makes them feel. Because then we can understand a little bit more about how, why people might behave a particular way. Well, I remember once I was, I was at a, I was shooting a wedding and sometimes the bride and groom would invite you to sit at the table with guests for the meal. And I was sitting next to this guest and she, you know, looked at me and she said, wow, you know, being a wedding photographer must be so great because you only have to work one day a week. I feel like I wrote this book for her, you know, because yeah, anyone who thinks that as a wedding photographer or an entrepreneur or a business owner that you ever work one day a week because that's when the actual work is produced is, you know, living in cloud cuckoo land because of course, you know, there's, you've got to download the images, you've got to work on the images, design albums, blah, blah, blah. I mean, there's so much involved marketing, you know, accounting. I mean, when you own your own business as well, everything, everything, you know, it's, you wear so many hats as, as a business owner that, you know, obviously she, she needed some more life experience to realize that, or she could just read this book and realize that there's a lot more to it. Than just photography. Yeah, definitely, definitely. But I mean, you know, whether it's escape or learning, you know, this is what I love about books. And there might be some people listening right now saying, yeah, that's all very well, but I can't concentrate on reading. Or there are some people that do just struggle with reading. There are certain issues with ADHD as well that make it quite hard for people to consume a book. But there are so many different options, whether it's large print, or even if you get things on Kindle, you can kind of choose different formats in which you could read. But then Audible or audio. Yeah, fantastic. You— yeah, there are so many different options out there. It's not just a very strict, you know, what it was 20 years ago where you either sat down and read a paperback book. Yeah. Or you just had to miss out. It's just— yeah, it's not the case anymore. Yeah, no, I mean, getting Shooters done on audio is definitely on my list, but just down the line a little bit. But I love audio, and I didn't used to. I used to only listen to nonfiction books that were read by the authors, so like things like Michelle Obama's Becoming. But then, because for my podcast I had to start reading a lot of books, I had to have one going on audio while I was reading a physical book as well. And I really got into fiction audio now. It's, it's the way forward. I love it because the way to kind of, if I'm ever in traffic, yeah, in the car and things like that, just, just flip on the audio because radio can, you know, some, some of the channels that you get when you're going on long stints means that you, you're going in and out of regions, um, can be a little bit more problematic or repetitive. Exactly. Yeah. You're like, I heard this news story already. Yeah. No, I think audio is really good. And you, you know, you experience it the same way. You're still, you know, picturing things in your head and living the life of the character. So, I mean, I know there's this debate about whether listening to audio is really reading. Yeah, it is. It is. You're consuming the content. And actually it's a different experience. Everyone's entitled to experience literature in any way that they want. But what I do, the, the audiobooks that I listen to are generally the ones that are read by the actual author. So my next one is the Tom Hanks book that was just released a couple of weeks ago. But— oh, I've bought that. I haven't read it yet. Yeah, I'm just about to get cracking. And to be honest, if it's read by Tom Hanks, I'm just in heaven. He is— he's just— it was a bit like when I read Obama's book and it didn't matter even though he was talking about Congress all the time and some of it I didn't understand. I was just like, it's just your voice, mate. Yeah, just, just talk to me. Just talk to me. Just recite your Tesco shopping list, babe. Tom Hanks is so nostalgic as well for, you know, a certain generation. All of our rom-coms used to be Tom Hanks, you know? Yeah, he's an absolute legend. And, and you get a bit of extra as well with some of the Audibles that I read. Yes, I listened to Will Smith. And when he was kind of talking about certain things in his past, instead of just saying, oh yeah, when I did that rap with Jazzy Jeff, he was like going, eh, what's Philadelphia? More ways than that. Yeah, yeah. That was— I listened to that as well. That was a really good listen. That was— he went above and beyond, didn't he? Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then it was really upsetting because just after I finished reading that, the whole slap thing happened and I was like, damn it, Will, why did you have to go and ruin it? I think people who listen to the book or read the book will kind of understand a little bit about where he was coming from. It's not okay to be violent, but it's sometimes we react, and he's a very, very reactive person. Yeah. And it kind of helps you understand the person a little bit more. And whatever you see in the media, whatever, whenever you see someone's reaction, when it's— especially when it's covered by millions and millions of people, um, you never always know the truth behind why somebody's done what they've done, whether it's right or wrong. Exactly. Um, yeah, toughie. Um, but you know, uh, this is what we're trying to do here on Get Booked, try and open conversations, have discussions about mental health and mental well-being. And something I like to ask all my guests on this show, Julia, is for 3 top tips that you would possibly have on trying to achieve a good level of mental well-being. Well, um, no, I think number 1 for me has to be exercise. Because if I don't exercise, then I just don't feel good about myself. And, you know, again, aside from the writing, exercise is what got me through the pandemic. I had a Peloton, thankfully. I used to be a runner. I can hopefully get back to it, but I've got plantar fasciitis right now, which is kind of holding me back. Another premenopausal symptom. Yay. Thank you. Yay. Thanks, nature. But, you know, even this morning, you know, I've been saying to myself, you need to get up early to do Peloton, you need to do it. And, and I was on my phone on the social media and I'm like, what am I doing? I'm like letting social media steal my positive mental health for me. Why am I looking at this when I could be on the Peloton right now? So I, you know, I made a conscious decision that I put it down. I got on the Peloton, I did 20 minutes and then did an arm thing, you know, and I feel a lot better about myself today. So You know, it all— exercise, it always starts with one decision, you know, to just do it, as Nike said. And I think it's really important. You know, on the flip side to that, you know, having downtime, allowing yourself to relax is important. Time to read, time to have time, you spend time with your family, have hobbies. These things are extremely important for mental health. Living in the now. And I think number 3, understanding that other people's opinions don't really matter, their opinion of you, you know, as an author, you suddenly thrust your— well, even as a photographer, you know, you're thrust into a world where a lot of other people have opinions about what you've produced, and you can't be all things to all people. People bring their own experiences to the table when they, for example, read your book, you know, and so you just have to kind of, you know, you've got to be you and not worry about, about others. I do have something saved on my iPad that says it's one of these pictures that you kind of steal off Pinterest and it says, why do you care so much about the opinion of somebody else who has never once lived a day, hour, or minute in your shoes. Yeah, perfect. Perfect. And, you know, I say it to my daughter all the time, you know, like when, you know, some— she says, oh, somebody said this, and I just said, I was like, does it, does it really matter? I mean, just don't— and I know this is easy to say. It's so easy to say. But of course, you know, with 48 years under my belt, it's now something I actually understand. You know, in my heart, it took, it took a long time for that to happen. But, you know, if we could understand it earlier, that would be great. I think it's really hard. It's easy to say, but it's, it's very hard to, to do it when it, when it actually happens to you. But if you look at something negative that somebody says about you and just think, what was their intention? Was their intention to be constructive or was it to be mean? And if they're trying to be mean, do you really give a crap about what somebody who is intentionally publicly mean to you. Exactly. Yeah, I, I, I just don't have time for it. You know, life is too short. I'd, I'd love to recommend the book Daring Greatly by Brené Brown, which, which talks a lot, a lot about all this sort of stuff about, you know, she's, she's amazing. Yeah. And it's another, that's another book that I listened to on audio and I think you get something extra special through the audio on that as well. But, you know, that quote that she reads out in the beginning, I think it was Roosevelt, from Roosevelt, and talking about how, you know, if people are criticizing you and you're in the ring and they've never gotten in the ring, then why do you care what they say? Yeah, it takes practice though. It does take practice. It does. And it doesn't mean that it doesn't hurt. Like, of course, I've had 1, 2-star reviews and you kind of look at them and you really go, oh, that kind of sucks. But also, I can't, like I said, I can't be the perfect book for, for all people. I've had more 5 and 4-star reviews. So that's, that's kind of what you got to keep in mind. And if you look at any, any book on Goodreads, every book, Lessons in Chemistry has 1-star reviews, you know, um, Jane Eyre has 1-star reviews. I mean, like everybody gets 1-star reviews. Yeah, it's tough. But sometimes, you know, if you haven't got anything nice to say, don't say anything at all. Yeah, but remind me, actually, I must send you a recent tweet that I saw. I'll scribble it down on a piece of paper, and it's about somebody else's review. I'll send it to you, but I can't remember what it was yet. And then we're running out of time, unsurprisingly. So if I can just get somebody in the public eye that you admire, because I think it's good to focus on the good people out there. Well, I really admire Stella Creasy right now. She's the Labour MP for Walthamstow, and I follow her on Instagram and Twitter. And I mean, I think this woman could be PM one day. She, she's out there fighting the good fight. She's always standing up for women. And just whenever I— and she's a mother as well, you know, and she's unabashed about that. She, she talks about the struggles of balancing being a mother with being an MP. And I just love her honesty. I love her passion. And I think that we need more Stella Creaseys in the world. I've literally just followed her as you said that on Twitter. You'll love her. You'll love her. I've got a feeling I will as well. You know what? I have thoroughly enjoyed chatting to you and thank you so much for doing an extract, which we're going to play out towards the end of the show as well, so people can have a a little bit of a sneaky peek at Shooters before they go and pre-order Chasing the Light the 31st of August. Thank you very much, I've really enjoyed this. Yeah, me too, and hopefully you'll be back on the show to talk to me about Chasing the Light shortly. Yeah, I will take that as a date. Thank you for joining us on Get Books, the women's and men's radio station. Now, as we like to do here on GetBooked, we have an author-read extract of today's book, Shooters, read by Julia Boggio. Hello, and this is an excerpt from Shooters by me, Julia Boggio. And before I start, I just want to say that this is a British rom-com. I have lived in the UK for most of my life, but my British accent is appalling, so I'm not going to torture you with that. So you just have to imagine it. So let me set the scene. At this point in the story, Stella, our heroine, is on a residential photography course at a château in France, led by the talented but arrogant Connor Knight. The model for that day's styled shoot has called in sick, and Connor needs somebody to get into the wedding dress and model for the class. He asks Stella. She is persuaded to say yes, class, although under duress. She feels less put out, however, when the handsome Jean-Luc turns out to be her pretend husband. Connor sees Stella flirting with Jean-Luc, and he doesn't like it one bit. Here we go. Connor cleared his throat. "Today we're going to concentrate on posing hands. Aside from the eyes, the hands are the most expressive part of the body." He looked at Stella and Jean-Luc standing like a couple and narrowed his eyes. Stella, can I borrow you for a moment? She stepped up and waited for instruction, aware that every eye was on her, including Connor's. It made her feel light-headed, or maybe that was the hairpins sticking into her scalp. She should have told the hairstylist how uncomfortable they were. May I touch you? The question took her by surprise. Blinking, she sent a silent plea to her cheeks not to betray her embarrassment. He repeated the question. Do you mind if I touch you? No, that's, that's fine. Her mouth felt dry. She could really use a glass of water. Glancing back towards the students, Connor said, always, always ask your models or clients if you can touch them before you pose them. You don't want to come across as a pervert. Gunner, hear that? Flash joked. Haha, Gunner replied. Connor took a step towards Stella. Hands are expressive. They show tenderness. He reached up and cradled Stella's cheek in his fingers, surprising her. She could feel the calluses on his palm against her face. Remembering she had a part to play, she raised her eyes to his, and for a moment their gazes locked together, his pupils darkening as she watched. It was just part of the act. Disinterest? The moment snapped and his touch disappeared as he casually slid his hand into his pocket, twisting away. Passion? He placed his hands on her waist, pulling her towards him and crumbling the fabric of her dress in his fingers. She wondered if he felt the jolt of heat below his belt too. Or sensual. He raised his hand to her face once again and dragged the back of his fingers slowly along her jawline. Stella didn't know how much more of this she could take. Each spot he touched lit up, and she didn't— and she hadn't breathed since he started the demonstration. She couldn't tell if she was sweating because of the hot mid-morning sunshine or Connor's attentions. Probably a bit of both. Don't ever be lazy when it comes to hands. Here's the difference in a nutshell. This says nothing. He placed his hand flat against the upper part of Stella's arm, the crest of a robot. Next, he changed the shape of it, adding a slight bend to his fingers, pressing them into her flesh just a little bit. This says I love you. The hairs on her arms stood up. The last man to say that to her had been Nathan, and it had been a lie. Just like now, she reminded herself, keeping her face carefully blank. He stepped away. Jean-Luc moved in, taking her arm. She smiled gratefully at him, and he blew her a kiss. "Any questions so far?" Connor asked. "Can we begin with the passionatance?" Jean-Luc said, sweeping his gaze across the ladies in the crowd. Lilliwen and Charon tittered. Connor turned towards Stella and Jean-Luc, his gaze snagging on the protective way Jean-Luc held her arm. Stella pursed her lips to stop herself from laughing. If she didn't know better, she'd say Connor was exhibiting signs of jealousy. He obviously liked being the alpha male, and Jean-Luc was encroaching on his territory. This could be fun. No, in fact— Connor tilted his head in thought. You know what? The bride is more important anyway. The groom is really just a prop. So why don't you go take a— take a seat? He gestured towards the sun loungers at the pool. And we'll let you know when you're needed. D'accord. I am your servant, Jean-Luc said, bowing his head. Before he left, he leaned over and took Stella's hand in his, placing a delicate kiss on the back of her fingers. À plus, chérie. We don't have all day. For the next hour, Stella held pose after pose. Connor crossed her arms, uncrossed one hand and brought it to her face, put the other arm on her waist, and made sure to capture each move on camera. The novelty of modeling quickly started to thin— to wear thin. The dress seemed to be shrinking, as though her sweat was making it shrivel. The corset ribs, which hadn't bothered her at the beginning, now dug into the top of her hip. She also worried that she was beginning to melt. The makeup artist flitted in and out, pressing more powder onto Stella's face. There must have been at least 10 layers of powder by now. As her coursemates clicked their shutters, she wished she were on their side of the lens. However, she wasn't, so she could— she should just do the best job she could. Of course, modeling was a masterclass in itself. Knowing how to— how it felt to be posed by someone as talented as Connor gave her more of an insight into the skill involved. She absorbed the minute changes he made to her chin, her shoulders, her hands, committing them all to memory. To elicit authentic facial expressions, he listed prompts to use, tricks like telling the groom to whisper something dirty in the bride's ear to get a big laugh. I do that, said Gunner. It always works. It felt intimate whenever Connor pointed his lens at her. Sometimes he would pause before taking the picture, those seconds before he hit the shutter release hanging expectantly in the air. She could feel him studying her through the viewfinder, his dominant eye having free rein to roam over her from head to toe, checking her position. If she were doing it correctly, he would take the picture. If she were doing it wrong, he would lower the camera and coach her into a better pose, sometimes using his hands to maneuver her, always asking permission before he touched her, of course. When he showed her the pictures on the back of his camera, she couldn't believe it was her. Between setups, she glanced towards Jean-Luc. He seemed quite happy, sprawled on the sun lounger, smoking a cigarette and texting. The stylist stepped into shot to fix the train of the dress, and Stella wished she would loosen some of the buttons just to give her a touch more breathing room. But she was too shy to ask. All the students were as active shooting her as they had been working with the professional models. They crowded around Connor, striving to get the same angles. During one setup, something long and hard appeared between Connor's legs. He dipped his head over his shoulder. "Alan, mate, some personal space." "Sorry," Alan replied from the ground. He hunched lower so he could move his big lens lower between Connor's knees. As they each took turns directing the poses, Stella's stomach grumbled. She realized she'd skipped breakfast. At the next break, she'd ask somebody to get her a snack. Connor, love, said Lilywen with a mischievous glint in her eye, would you mind showing us some couple poses now? I think it would be really helpful. Karen, Lisa, and Hannah chorused their agreement. Connor sighed. He called to Jean-Luc, beckoning him to return. Extinguishing his cigarette underfoot, Jean-Luc stood. With a slow, deliberate saunter of someone who knows he's attractive, he ambled towards the group. From his pocket, he took out a packet of mints and threw a couple into his mouth. "Ready for ze action, as you say," he quipped, stopping next to Stella. She was glad to have her husband back. "Right then," Connor shifted his camera to his free hand and motioned for Jean-Luc to stand behind Stella. Lilliwen raised her hand. "Sorry, Connor?" "Yes?" "What if I want to pose the man with his hands on the woman's, you know, her arse? How do you make it look tasteful instead of horny?" "I don't think Stella wants to—" "No, it's fine. I don't mind," she said from behind a guileless smile. Lilliwen was obviously trying to help Stella realize the dream of screwing a Frenchman. For the fun of it, Stella was happy to play along, even if she had no plans to sleep with anybody. Besides, it seemed to irritate Connor. Jean-Luc looked delighted. "Right." Connor's nostrils flared as he took a steadying breath. "Remember, as I said earlier, the groom is only a prop in a wedding photo. The bride is always the focus. Stella, can you step in front of Jean-Luc and face him?" She followed his instruction. She would ask for a break after this pose to get a drink and some food. She could feel a hunger headache developing with the accompanying dip in mood. "Now place your hands on his cheek. Actually, no, just off his shoulder." He stood back and examined his models, running his fingers over his jawline in thought. "Okay, Price, stick out your left hip and lean to the right. Now drop your back shoulder." She tried to do as he asked, but she felt distorted, her body going in one direction and her dress straining to go in the other. "Is this how it's supposed to look?" 'You're doing it perfectly.' Much to her annoyance, Stella glowed at his words. She fought with the muscles at the corner of her mouth, trying to keep them from betraying her pleasure at his approval. He asked the stylist to adjust the train of her dress while he twiddled with the dials on his camera. Stella wished he would hurry up. Her hip was aching. 'Okay, final touches now. Jean-Luc, put your hand respectfully on her bottom and bring your lips closer to hers like you're about to kiss.' He mumbled this last bit. Standing back, he pointed the lens at them and shot a few frames. He examined the back of his camera, nodded, and said, "Okay, got it. You can break the pose." Stella sagged with relief. The dress was really starting to chafe, and she worried her breasts were going to pop out of the top the way her torso was twisted. "Wait a second," Alan objected. "We haven't had a chance to take the photo yet." Oh, Alan. She lifted back into the pose. Jean-Luc's smile turned sly as he said to Connor, "What is that thing you said to do when last I modeled for you? Whisper 'deux chauds coquilles'?" Without waiting for an answer, he brought his mouth close to her ear. His hot breath tickled the delicate skin of her neck and she shivered. He tightened his grip. Just loud enough that others could hear, he murmured, "Je pourrais te dévorer toute crue." Really sorry about my French accent. I don't know what I'm saying. Having no idea what he was saying but enjoying the subtext, Stella erupted in croaky laughter. The shutters clicked like castanets behind her, trying to capture the look of jocularity on her face while her sexy model husband groped her bottom. Laughing made her remember how parched she was. When was the last time she drank water? Hours ago. The sun was high despite the shade, its rays hammering down. Her stomach gurgled again. Oh, that's right, no breakfast. And the dress was so tight, the ribbing of the corset excavating her skin, and her inner thighs burning, chafed and sweating. She tried to breathe her way through it, but the stale cigarettes on Jean-Luc's clothing mixed with mint on his breath made her head spin. A wave of dizziness washed over her. Her grip loosened and her head tipped backwards. The last thing she remembered before passing out was Jean-Luc's frantic eyes and his empty hands flailing at the air. And that's it. As said, apologies for my French accent and the French words. I hope you enjoyed that. Thank you for joining us for today's Get Booked with me, Hazel Butterfield, and today's guest, Giulia Boggio, chatting about shooters. Quick reminder that next week we are going to have DCR Bond on the show. DCR Bond, Debbie, was born in London but grew up in Jamaica, then Zambia, and dimensions of this international upbringing feature in her writing. As a child, she was encouraged to write and wanted to nurture her talent and became a journalist. She never did. Instead, she studied law, then qualified as an accountant, and worked for 20 years in the City. She's not sure she ever really enjoyed that job. But now, freed from the shackles of the day job, DCR Bond has reverted to her childhood passion and loves her new career. Her women's fiction novels are light-hearted, visual, fast-paced, and easy to read with strong, credible, and relatable characters. When Debbie's not writing, she can be found playing tennis, badly, so she says, bridge a little bit better, in the gym, walking her dogs on Exmoor, or tending her garden. She loves cooking her own produce for friends and family. That sounds fantastic. She lives with her husband in rural Devon, surrounded by their miniature bull terriers and small flock of free-range hens. Now, D.C.R. Bond has written Sarah needs saving. What do you do when your neatly ordered life starts to topple? Sarah never expected to be blackmailed, especially not by someone so close. Sarah hadn't expected to be receiving criminal hush money either. As a respectable Exeter University professor's wife, neither were really the done thing, but super organized Sarah has it all under control, or so she thinks. Initially strong-armed into silence, Sarah is gradually dragged deeper into the underworld as she strives to protect her reputation and the lives of her friends and family. Mmm, definitely not one to miss. I will see you next week for the next episode of Get Booked.