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My editor Whitney Frick joins me for a very special episode of Pulling the Thread, on the eve of On Our Best Behavior's publication—coming on Tuesday. Many of you have been with me as I've written this book, and by osmosis, you probably have some sense of the process, but it felt important to me to celebrate OOBB (as we call it), by bringing you all the way inside. I wanted to do this with the person who knows the text almost as well as me.
Writing a book is really hard—and it's also incredibly co-creative. As someone who has co-written or ghostwritten 12 books, I'm usually the co-creator, holding the structure for the authors while they revisit their lives and mine it for hard-won wisdom. In this case, though, it was Whit who helped me, holding the potential of the book as a guiding light for the process. She took me by the hand, bringing me ever closer to myself as I wrote through drafts. We both worked really hard on this book—really hard. Distilling, refining, and interrogating the material until we knew the path was so well-trod, readers would be able to easily follow the book's unfolding, and understand exactly what I was trying to say. To say that I'm pleased with how On Our Best Behavior turned out is an understatement—I'm thrilled, which is not something that's easy for me to say (See: Pride). I believe the book is the best I could write, and I'm so grateful to Whit for getting me there. As we explore in this conversation, I had a very powerful battle with resistance—and am so happy I pushed through. If you haven't yet ordered your copy, On Our Best Behavior is available wherever you get your books starting May 23—in the U.S., Canada, UK, and Australia, with more countries to come. Please support your local, independent bookshop!
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TRANSCRIPT:
(Edited slightly for clarity.)
ELISE LOEHNEN: Have you ever done a podcast, Whit?
WHIT FRICK: No, I have never done a podcast, Elise.