Chapter 1: What is the Fantasy Fan Reads podcast about?
Welcome, welcome, welcome to the Fantasy Fan Reads podcast. We are thrilled to announce the newest bookish podcast under the Fantasy Fangirls Media Network. What you're about to hear is the first little bit of this brand new podcast, Fantasy Fan Reads. which is hosted by the delightful Jess of Lost Books of Jess.
Each episode is all about celebrating the joys of reading through cozy coffee conversations, author interviews, and so much more. These first few episodes of Fantasy Fan Reads will be having little snippets posted on the Fantasy Fangirls feed where you're listening to our beautiful voices right now.
If you want to listen to the full episode, you can do so over on the Fantasy Fan Reads podcast feed. Link is in the show notes. Be sure to follow the Fantasy Fan Read podcast feed. And hey, it's on YouTube too. New episodes drop every single Tuesday. Give the podcast a follow on Instagram at Fantasy Fan Reads.
So without further ado, and with all of your follow buttons hit, we hope you enjoy this snippet of Fantasy Fan Reads.
Fantasy Fan Reads
Hey there, how are you? Welcome to the Fantasy Fan Reads podcast, where we gather as friends to chat about our shared love of all things reading. I'm Jess, an avid lifelong reader and lover of cozy conversations. So go ahead and grab yourself a cup of something wonderful and come on in. Today's episode is a super exciting author interview for me.
I'm joined by Sarah Beth Durst, author of recent books such as The Spellshop, The Enchanted Greenhouse, The Warbler, and so many more. How are you doing today, Sarah? I am doing great. I'm so excited to be talking with you. Thanks for having me here. Oh, you're so welcome, Sarah.
I'm frankly thrilled through the moon to talk to you today because your books are such a warm hug that really cemented my love for the cozy fantasy genre. So I can't wait to dig into all of that with you. A quick heads up as we get started.
This episode will be mostly spoiler free for Sarah's books, but since I can't help myself, there will be a few questions at the end of the episode that head into spoiler territory. I'll be sure to give you a warning first before we spill the tea. Fantasy Fan Reads is also the newest podcast in the Fantasy Fangirls media network, and as a new show, your support means the world.
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Chapter 2: Who is Sarah Beth Durst and what are her notable works?
Yes. And books are such a good place for like either escaping what we don't want to face or facing something in a safer way. But sometimes we need the cozy escape for sure.
And I think there's nothing wrong with that. People keep saying like, but I hate that phrase guilty pleasure because it's Joy is so rare. You just have to seize it when you can. And I think escape is necessary. You know, you just can't keep hurling yourself against a brick wall all the time. You have to like heal your bruises a little bit before you go back out there.
So it was good. I had never thought about it that way, about how when something brings us a lot of joy, we fall into calling it a guilty pleasure sometimes. Like now I'm going to be thinking on that. Where's the guilt in joy?
Don't do it, people. Right? If making yourself happier means that you have more inside you to give to the world. So I think there's nothing guilty or bad about it.
Oh my gosh, we could stop now. I love that so much. Because I also need to know, in my opinion, cozy reading and warm beverages go hand in hand. Do you have a go to cozy warm beverage? What's your favorite?
My absolute favorite is hot chocolate.
I love hot chocolate.
I like fancy hot chocolate. But I also like the giant Costco size box of Swiss mess. That'll do just fine.
Yeah, we can't be fancy all the time. Sometimes we just need hot chocolate. Especially if you're doing it in quantity. I know. Somebody introduced me to a dirty hot chocolate where you get the coffee shop to put a shot of espresso in your hot chocolate. So you get both but it's like better than a mocha. It was a life altering experience for me.
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Chapter 3: How does Sarah define cozy fantasy?
Yeah, my mom introduced me to books at a super young age. I was like,
Chapter 4: What books are currently influencing Sarah's writing?
That small child in the library that was taking out more books than I am tall. And she'd have to invent rules that I could only take out as many books as I could carry. And the libraries would be like, are you really going to read all this? And I was like, I like to have choices. Right. So I've always loved books. I was super shy as a kid.
And this was a place where I could be brave, where I could make friends that would stay with me. And I could ride dragons and defeat dragons and befriend dragons and pretty much, you know, the whole dragon thing. All the dragons. All the dragons. All the dragons. Yeah. In fact, when I wasn't reading, my parents would be like, Sarah, you need fresh air. Go outside.
And I would spend it searching for a dragon's egg. So it was pretty much just all dragons outside. As soon as I realized about age 10 that these books that I was so in love with were written by, you know, humans... which hadn't really occurred to me before that. That's the only thing I ever wanted to do. So I didn't look back. I just started writing and that's pretty much all I do.
Wow. That's, that's amazing. I am a lifelong, like I knew I wanted to be a teacher the second I went to school. So I can relate to that. Like when you feel that thing within yourself that you knew you wanted to do, it's such a cool moment where,
Were there any books in your childhood that like you can think of right now that were pivotal ones that like some certain stories that really hit you when you were a kid?
The one I always mention because it was so pivotal was Alana by Tamara Pierce. I don't know if everybody listening has read it, but in case you haven't, it's about a girl who dresses up as a boy to become a knight in a land where only boys can become knights.
And I just, I read that when I was 10 and I have this clear memory of closing that book and thinking to myself, if Alana can become a knight, I can become a writer. And it was just one of those like empowering books, which is, I think why I'm drawn to fantasy is because I love those books that make you feel stronger than you thought you were.
that make you feel braver that say, yes, yes, you can do this. Yes, you can defeat the big bad. Yes, you can meet a magical whatever. Yeah.
You know, sometimes I encounter people who aren't as big of a fantasy reader as I am, or they're always like, there's the fantasy naysayers. They're like, what do you mean you want to read about magic and dragons? And I always say to them, it's more about us than you think. Like, yes, it's a dragon, but... Oh, no, yeah.
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