"Everyone has that thing inside of them that they could nurture, but maybe some people have been taught that they can't or they shouldn't because it's not valuable in society. But to me, everyone has that." - Zara Marielle Zara Marielle was the kind of introverted kid who wrote plays and then talked everyone she knew into performing them. She'll tell you those plays were bad. What stuck was the impulse. After undergrad she cycled through three barista jobs and a stint as an assistant talent agent for film and TV in San Francisco - a job that sounded cooler on paper than it felt in the chair - before deciding she could be writing in Scotland instead, and going. A one-year master's at the University of Edinburgh gave her twelve months with no excuse not to write, and she has arranged her life around the work ever since. In this conversation, Zara and Mike talk about her debut, an empowering portal fantasy about a trapped housewife who takes a secret job in a magical cafe; how the eclectic cafe she grew up above became the one in the book; why improv made her braver on the page and off it; and her conviction that creativity is in everyone and only needs the will to nurture it. Key Takeaways: 1. Creativity isn't a gift you're issued at birth. Zara doesn't believe some people are simply good at it and others aren't. What separates people is the willingness to work, and the work never finishes - there's no point where you've reached peak ability and can stop. 2. Her debut is the third novel she finished. The first she never queried; she just needed to prove she could complete a book. The second went nowhere. The third got the deal. Her verdict: always be improving. 3. Braided storylines keep a draft moving. Zara writes multiple interwoven strands on purpose. When one stalls she hops to another, and the stuck one untangles itself while she's away. 4. "Strong female character" can mean starting small and claiming your power. She's less interested in a sword-swinging badass than in a woman blooming into herself. She notes the odd double standard too: readers flinch at a story about a toxic marriage, then happily read about murder. 5. Improv teaches you that people will say yes. Built on "yes, and," it forces everyone to get on board with your idea - transformative if you grew up shy and braced for people to think your ideas were dumb. It shows up in her drafting: she resists locking a plot's trajectory. 6. Life becomes material, usually without asking. The magical cafe borrows from her parents' cafe, the one she grew up in a loft above. The protagonist's escape from a controlling marriage draws on a relationship Zara got out of. 7. A book deal is a beginning, not an arrival. Her agent ended their relationship twenty-four hours after the publisher contract was signed, leaving her seven months with an editor and no advocate. Getting new representation meant rewriting an entirely different novel from scratch. Buy The Cafe of Infinite Doors: Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1454961279?linkCode=ll2&tag=rettocasgra-20 Bookshop: https://bookshop.org/a/54587/9781454961277 Support your local indie bookstore - if it's not on the shelf, ask them to order it. Connect with Zara: Website: https://zaramarielle.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/zaramarielle/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ZaraMarielleAuthor TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@zaramarielle Connect with Mike: Website: https://uncorkingastory.com/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@uncorkingastory Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/uncorkingastory/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/uncorkingastory TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@uncorkingastory Twitter: https://twitter.com/uncorkingastory If you like this episode, please share it with a friend. If you have not done so already, please rate and review Uncorking a Story on Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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“What did the council decide on item 42?” — answered with the speaker and the moment.