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Transcript: Caroline Lee Samples Kilty By Association

[00:00:00] Katherine Grant: Welcome to the Historical Romance Sampler Podcast. The place for you to find new historical romance books and authors to fan over. I'm award winning historical romance author Katherine Grant, and each week I'm inviting fellow authors to come on and share a little bit of their work and themselves.

They'll read a sample of one of their books, and then I'm going to ask them a bunch of questions. By the end of the episode, you'll have a sense of what they write and who they are. Hopefully, you and I both will have something new to read. So what are we waiting for? Let's get into this week's episode.

Well, I'm very excited. Today we are joined by USA Today bestselling author Caroline Lee. Caroline has been reading romance for so long that her fourth grade teacher used to make her cover her books with paper jackets, but it wasn't until she was mostly grown up that she realized she could write it too.

So she did, and now she writes hot, hilarious historical romances, and also is hilarious on TikTok. Welcome, Caroline. I'm very excited to have you today.

Thank

[00:01:11] Caroline Lee: you so much for having me.

[00:01:14] Katherine Grant: So I know you're going to read something for us. Can you tell us what the book is and what it's about? what scene we're going to get?

[00:01:21] Caroline Lee: Absolutely. So today is release day for the third book in the Kilty Pleasures series. So I thought today would be clearly that would be a good choice to read. So this is actually my 3rd series of medieval rom coms and the medieval rom coms do tend to be laugh out loud

ridiculous. They the, the plots are almost Shakespearean level, like, ridiculousness, whereas my comedies that are Victorian are more victorian romances with some humor added in. The medieval ones are just, just unadultered fun, basically. So this book that we are releasing, well, book one was Kilty as Sin.

Book two was Kilty Plea. This one is Kilty by Association. And then we've got the last one in the series that releases later this year is Kilty Until Proven Innocent. So, as you might have guessed, all of my heroes are Scottish. So, well, I guess in my medievals, my heroines are also Scottish. In the scene that I'm going to read today, it's actually the opening scene of Kilty by Association.

We have our heroine. Elspeth is going to find a bodyguard for, supposedly for herself, but of course it turns out it's actually for her son. Her son is nine years old and is now, thanks to her husband's death, the Earl. And someone's trying to take him out. That's the plot. No spoilers. And so she goes to this tavern looking to hire a bodyguard and the

guy she finds is this big, strong, burly, like, redhead, big beard that has this reputation of being, being bad. But of course he isn't. It turns out, I can spoil it because it's the first scene, Craig, our hero, is actually one of the King's Hunters. And the King's Hunters are the theme that runs throughout the series of being the King's Hunters.

They're almost like U. S. Marshals, like they travel the highlands protecting the king's justice and mom's apple pie and whatnot. And they wear these masks very much like the Mandalorians, so nobody can tell who they are, that sort of thing. So Craig is here undercover trying to get hired by the bad guys and Elspeth just sort of blunders in asking for, to be a bodyguard, and of course he says no, but he can't tell her why.

Okay, anyhow,

[00:03:54] Katherine Grant: I'm excited. This sounds like it's gonna be fun.

[00:03:57] Caroline Lee: It's just, yeah, they're fun. Okay. She felt a small smile tug at the corner of her lips. Craig, she prompted, realizing how much she sounded as if she were trying to coax her son into confessing a sin. "Do you admire this criminal?" "Nay," he glanced up, looking around the tavern.

"I mean, I, of course I do." Was it her imagination, or was he flustered? Adorably so. "He's a legend!" "One you admire?" "Absolutely," he declared, lifting his chin and meeting her gaze defiantly. It was so patently a lie that she struggled to contain her chuckles. Instead, she reached across the table and patted his hand, which was still spread beside the mug.

"I think you're a good man, Craig." He was correct. Subterfuge was not one of his skills. Shock flickered across his face, which made her chuckles fight to emerge. "I'm bad," he croaked. Patting the back of his hand, Elspeth raised her brow in challenge. "Are you very bad?" He sounded as if he were strangling so bad.

"I don't believe you," Elsbeth announced with a smile. "I think you might be quite good." At that moment she realized something. She was having fun. Aye, she was definitely in danger of laughing, which was completely inappropriate at a moment like this. "Oh hell," Craig muttered suddenly. She gasped when he flipped her hand over, pinning it beneath his, entwining her fingers through his.

Elspeth looked up from their joined hands to see a panicked expression on his face. "What?" "I need you," he hissed. "Get over here now." The command was followed by a not too gentle tug on her hand, urging her around the table. Not understanding what was happening, Elspeth allowed herself to be pulled over the bench.

"Craig, what are you-" "Pretend you like me, lass!" He murmured, low and intense, as he arranged her on the bench. Nay, not on the bench. When he was through, she was all but draped across his lap. He was turned so his back and shoulder faced the tavern, while she, curled around him, could see the room. "Craig!" She kept her voice low, but firm, as she did when scolding her daughter.

"What is going on?" Instead of answering, he arranged her arms around his shoulders. To a casual observer, they might appear to be embracing. But his bulk held her against the wall, and she noticed her arms and cloak hid most of his features. Worried now, she scanned the tavern and saw the newcomers. They were the regalia of the palace guards, although it was impossible to tell if they were on duty.

Their gazes swept the room, and Craig wasn't the only one who was doing his best to hide his face from them. Was he a wanted man then? What other reason could there be for him trying so hard to not be recognized by the guards? Her heart was hammering against her ribs, and for the first time since stepping up to his table, Elspeth felt truly concerned.

"Craig?" She whispered, hating how wobbly her voice sounded. His nose was only inches from hers, and she saw his eyes widen with understanding. His features softened, as did his hold on her. "Ah, I'm a sorry bastard, eh? I was thinking only of myself." One hand remained on her hip, but the other rose to brush a stray hair away from her brow, tucking it beneath the cloak.

"I am the sort of arsehole you need protectin from." His voice was so gentle, so at odds with his actions of a moment ago. "'Tis my son who needs protecting." His gaze dropped to her lips. "Is he now?" he murmured. "Are you married, Elspeth?" She swallowed, trying to tamp down the shiver of heat which had caressed her spine at the way her name sounded on his lips.

"Nay, I'm widowed almost two years now." His fingertips still rested against her jaw. "Two years is a long time," he whispered huskily. She couldn't seem to look away from those gentle hazel eyes. "Aye," she admitted, "I'm beginning to think so." His gaze darted over his shoulder. "Oh shite, they're coming over here."

Elspeth began to turn so she could confirm it was the guards he was speaking of, but his hand slid from her jaw to the side of her neck. His fingers cupping the back of her head. Her gaze went right back to his. "Lass," he announced in a low, serious tone, "I need you to kiss me." "Me?" She squeaked. He leaned closer.

"I'll be kissing you, but if you wouldn't mind kissing me back, it would be helpful. Tis a matter of national security." "National security?" The surprised laughter burbled up from her chest the same moment he captured her lips with his and the freedom she felt caused her to tighten her hold on Craig's shoulders and pull herself closer because this kiss. This kiss was like nothing she'd experienced before.

Yay!

[00:09:04] Katherine Grant: Well, that was really fun and delightful. I have a lot of questions for you, but first we're going to take a quick break for our sponsors.

[00:09:12] Annie R McEwen: [musical interlude].

[00:10:03] Katherine Grant: Hey samplers! It's Katherine Grant. I am interrupting this episode to tell you how to get a free book, the Viscount Without Virtue. First, go to bit.ly/hrs fan, go through the checkout process. This is where you add the promo code, HR SFAN as your last step. Just download your free ebook to your ereader.

Alright, well let's get back to this week's episode.

So we are back with USA Today best selling author Caroline Lee, who just read a sample of Kilty by Association which she said is now available, is it wide or on Kindle Unlimited? Kindle Unlimited. Kindle Unlimited. All right, so first of all, in that scene you were reading, I, for some reason, was really picking up on vibes of Tangled, the movie, and That makes me wonder, number one, was that an inspiration for you?

And number two, where do you get your inspiration for each book?

[00:11:16] Caroline Lee: Hmm. Okay. So this book in particular I know I love you're talking about the scene where they go into the tavern and it says it smells like the color brown. Like, yes, that, that was, well, that was the vibe I was going for and all the.

really big burly guys are like hulking in the background. They do not break into song in my, yeah, I'm sorry. I do actually have a running joke with my readership for the Victorians that I do sneak in a Disney princess reference in each of my books. Oh my gosh, that's amazing. And I, I do, I did have one, one character who referred to men as smelling like the color brown and people did pick up on.

So no, I would say that that, like, that was the vibe I was going for that. I honestly can't remember where I had this. So this character Craig has appeared in five previous books. I, you know, I have a lot of connections through all of them. The previous series right before this one was Bad and Plaid, and they all had fabulous names.

Plaid to the Bone You know, you give plaid a bad name, you give love a plaid name, things like that. And the theme through that was that the heroes were often the King's Hunters, which is now, this series is now about the King's Hunters and their missions and stuff. And that one, the King's Hunters kept coming across.

stumbling into the, well, they were a series of sisters and the sisters kept marrying them, for goodness sakes. So Craig has appeared in a lot of the previous ones and Craig has a reputation for being brawny but stupid. His, he was, these characters actually descend from the characters of my first series and his grandfather was a fan favorite.

He, he actually won an award that was titled, like, thank God he's hot because he's really dim or something like that. Yes, yes. They wanted Craig to be that again. So Craig is really big and burly and black. He was an ex blacksmith, but has always been considered dim. And even his colleagues, his, his partners on the Kings Hunters They're like, look, we're, you're, you're the tank.

We'll be in charge of coming up with the plan. You go attack. So for the first time he's been given basically that's where it came from. So I needed to give him responsibility. I needed to get him away from his dudes and sent him off. All, a lot of these books tend to be road trips and this one's no exception.

They road trip for the first half and then they get there and plot happens. So I needed to say what, what would be. What would keep them alone? Or, or, or, get him alone? Yeah. Where would he have responsibility? So I decided that I needed in the couple previous books, he needed to have a soft spot for kids.

He wanted kids, he wanted a family, but he never thought he was gonna have one because nobody would want him, blah, blah, blah. So of course I had to make his heroine a widowed mother with kids so that we could see. And oh, you know, you have the moment where he picks up the little baby and he's carrying the baby and, and the heroine's like, is anyone else's uterus melting at this?

This is amazing. You know, that sort of thing. I love that. Because you just have to have that.

[00:14:25] Katherine Grant: Yeah.

I was seeing on your website that you've written sweet Westerns, as well as these historicals through different eras. And then you also have some orc romances. So one question I have, because the sweet westerns you specifically say aren't too steamy and then you're not at all, they're not at all steamy.

And then your historicals are steamy. And I know like, there are reader expectations associated with that. But I'm curious, like when you're just wearing your writer hat, has writing some books where you're not allowed to explore steam and some books where you are allowed to explore steam, given you any insight or perspective on when you want to add steam and when you don't?

[00:15:05] Caroline Lee: That is a really good question. I will say that the, the Sweet Westerns were the first books that I've written. I've got about 40 Sweet Westerns. They don't actually qualify as sweet because there's violence and, you know, Drinking and cursing and you know, it's it's the cowboy books that are the cowboy movies that we grew up watching where they punch each other and whatnot.

But there's no steam in them at all. And then I have again another about 40 contemporary cowboys that were written very similar. Some of them have incredibly short sex scenes after marriage in the epilogue, but they're basically steam free. And again, same time period. I made the decision in 2018 2019 to, to move out of that genre.

And I sat down and I thought, what is it that you like about historical westerns? What do you like about cowboys? I actually have this whole, whole theory, my TED talk here. I believe that we have two very different genres here. Westerns, a western will end happily ever after if the characters are committed to one another and are agreeing to work hard together to make a life together into the future.

They could be dirt poor. They could still be on the Oregon Trail, but they're going to be together and that's going to be their happily ever after. Our Regencies and our Victorians are happily ever after if the two characters are committed to one another and have a manner, have, have a way to support each other,

themselves in the manner in which they've been accustomed. You, you know, it's, we rarely have a happily ever after where they are- she's going to have to be wearing a peasant dress and working her fingers to the bone for the rest of her life. There's, there's usually some sort of inheritance issue.

That's often the plot, right? Yeah. You know, Because that's part of the appeal, part of the universal fantasy of being able to wear these beautiful silk gowns and have servants for the rest of our lives. But that's what we readers want. So two very different happily ever afters. And in 2018 and 2019 I sat down and what do I like about these books?

I like the grit. I like the violence. I like the adventure plots. And That happily ever after appealed to me at the time. I have since, I can go back and forth now. And I decided that the Scottish books that I, and the medieval books that I, grew up reading, like in the fourth grade, were this way. So I said, I'm going to switch over.

It was a concerted, very deliberate. I signed with Dragonblade Publishing and I published some books with them in order to reach a new audience. My old audience was very upset with the idea of me adding spice and steam into my books. But I was able to, You know, make the transition, I suppose. And then I grew from there with medieval Scottish books.

Then I changed into medieval comedies right around the time the pandemic hit, which was fabulous because we all needed laughs and these were ridiculous laughs. And then I switched over to writing Scottish. Victorian comedies, which, you know, are happily ever after when they've got the money at the end, but basically, and it works because that's what we love!

I went back and I rebranded my Westerns under a different name. So now it's Caroline Lee writing as Josephine West. Because I was having a lot of, my, my current audience is much larger than The Sweet Westerns were and I was having issues with people who read my books going back and finding the Sweet Westerns and then getting the entire book and finding out there was no sex and being upset about it, which is totally understandable.

So I rebranded of just so you know if they're written by Josephine West on the cover. There's no spice. And I have that on the website. So I. I can't remember the last time I wrote a story that didn't have any spice to it. It was probably four years ago. So I would say that I was, I am, I'm finally getting around to answering your question.

I, I am not actively writing books that are both steamy and not steamy.

[00:19:18] Katherine Grant: How did it feel to start writing books that had sex scenes?

[00:19:21] Caroline Lee: Honestly, it was intimidating. It sometimes still is, you know, to go from this not at all sex to, and my first several steamy books, you can tell there might be like one scene and then one scene in the epilogue, that sort of thing.

And now I'm getting to the point where I'm like, well, chapter two, let's get going. But, you know, it can be to think, oh God, gosh, they have to have sex again. How are we going to make this one? What are the logistics of this scene going to be? Yeah, so it's not boring the same stuff over and over again.

[00:19:53] Katherine Grant: Yeah. No, I I relate to that because it is a little bit like well, we want the reason we enjoy reading sex scenes is because it is another instance of the characters being vulnerable and connecting with each other, but then there's the pressure of but how do I do this in a new interesting way that is true to the characters and not just being like, let's explore a new kink because we haven't done that before, but at the same time being open minded and saying, maybe we need to explore different kinks.

[00:20:20] Caroline Lee: Yes, yes, that is, that's exactly it. Like, well, we can do this on the bed again, or I don't know, a secluded mountain glen? A carriage somehow. Yeah, whatever. Yeah.

[00:20:36] Katherine Grant: Well, that's very interesting. I saw that you have multiple history degrees, and I am very interested in hearing more about that. So, first of all do you do a lot of research and do you feel that like your academic relationship to history is different than your fictional relationship to history?

[00:20:57] Caroline Lee: Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. First of all, when I told my professors that no, I was not going on to get my doctorate in history and instead I was going to use my master's degree to write. smutty history books that I got, I got. They didn't like that. Yes, they were not keen on that. But actually several of them follow me now, which I think is funny.

I mean, it's fabulous. So

I studied social history in I didn't get my undergrad in it, but I got my, my master's degree in it. And within social history, I was focusing on women's history. And within that, I was focusing on the history of marriage. But social history is the study of the lives people led. So you're not, and, and you know, this, this is what we do.

And we're not studying the battles or the, the, Proclamations. We are studying in social history. You study the food they ate, what they drank, how they went to church, how they dressed, what they believed, how they divided the chores among the family, how they kept time, that sort of things. Because frankly, that's what's interesting.

Sorry. I agree. No shade to people who like studying specific battle objects. But this is, this is what I think is fascinating. Because the idea of people are, people are people no matter when they are. Humans have been human ing for, you know, Since human time. Yeah, right.

Writing historical fiction is applied social history. Okay, so we have learned our social history. We know how they kept time. We know what their chores were like. We know what they dressed. We know how they cooked. And now we're going to apply it by imagining how, okay, is perhaps there, you know, 1300 London, there's a woman named Catherine.

This is how she produces dinner for her husband, her family. This is how she dresses. This is what she does on Sundays, that sort of thing. Now we're going to get into her head, because we know how modern Catherine thinks, so we can probably assume, based on this parameters, how historical Catherine thinks.

That's what, historical fiction is applied to social history. We're just writing historical romance! Which is a one step further and it always ends happily ever after. Yes. Historical fiction does not always end happily ever after. It usually doesn't. Usually doesn't. Yeah. You spent, you spent 600 pages in the side, the head of Anne Boleyn.

Yeah. So, yeah. So, it's it's, I think, Historical romance is the best kind of historical fiction. I do totally acknowledge that modern historical romances, and I'm not going to say are inaccurate, not at all. What we choose to do are highlight the stories and the characters that are most going to appeal to modern women,

modern readers, and it is possible that we could make the argument that those characters and those stories were in the minority in 1300. Like I mean, the book I'm releasing today is, is a story of a widowed, her husband was an earl, her nine year old son is now the current earl, she's a widowed countess, and she's jaunting about looking for a bodyguard.

There were a limited number of widowed countesses in 1300 Scotland. I mean, there's going to be far more stories about the baker's wife who does what she's supposed to do and and doesn't raise any eyebrows. However, the Widowed Countess story is far more interesting. So that's why we tell that story. The, the, the badass heroine that goes out and gets what she wants.

They were there and they have been there throughout human history. They're just, you know, Perhaps not as many of them as there are the, the, the, the behaved women who do, who don't make history, the well behaved women who don't make history. Right.

[00:24:59] Katherine Grant: And by the way, most women aren't in any history textbooks, so.

[00:25:03] Caroline Lee: Correct. Exactly. Who's writing about the baker's wife, you know, who doesn't, does what she's, told? Nobody. They're writing about the strong, independent women who kick butt. And one of the things that I have become known for, particularly in my comedies, is my long author's notes at the end. And my author's notes are written in my voice.

And I have hundreds of readers who come to me and say that the author's note is their favorite. Some people say they skip to the end and read those first, then read the book, then go back and read it. It's a full chapter. And what I do is I go through the parts of the book. that were either BS, like where I'm like, this is what I wrote about and this is not what history was.

Let me tell you the real history. Or I say, this is what I wrote about and believe it or not, this is true. Let me tell you about it. So this, in this particular book one of the Plot points is one of the character zones, a tremendous amount of books. And of course we know the stereotype of the dark ages and everybody is, you know, eating raw meat and hitting each other with sticks.

And, and I go in at length. I talk about manuscript culture and how, no, absolutely. We had universities at this point, we have books at this point that anybody can reach. So yes, so that's, that's what I'm, I'm. doing. I've got my framework of my social history of what life would be like. I'm choosing my characters to place within that framework.

And as I, as I go, I have to go look up things. I also, what I tend to do is put XXX in the manuscript when I'm like, future Caroline, look this up. I don't want to break the flow. It's your problem. And then future Caroline goes. PAST CAROLINE! We have to go look up someone's eye color now. Or, you know, who was cardinal this year or whatever.

So I deal with that afterwards, clearly. I put in all the specifics. But then at the end is when I go in through my author's note and I say, look, here's the history. We got to talk about this, whether good or bad or true or not. In this, in this book, one of the things in my author's note I point out is it's extremely unlikely that a king would have allowed a widowed countess to choose her next husband, even if her next husband is one of the men that he knows is loyal to him, you know, right?

Because And I went into examples of that. Because we have those. They got written down because they're countesses.

[00:27:30] Katherine Grant: Do you feel when you do need to do some historical research that, like, that's your wheelhouse? You know how to do that? Or do you have any imposter syndrome about, like, I don't know if this is the right way to do this research?

[00:27:43] Caroline Lee: I would say that I have imposter syndrome. I, okay.

[00:27:47] Katherine Grant: Even though you have a master's in history. I,

[00:27:51] Caroline Lee: I do have I still have all my books from, from my program, but I don't have like, you know, the fine leather volumes on that I can turn to and say, Ah, yes, chapter 27. Yeah,

[00:28:07] Katherine Grant: I feel I don't have a degree in history.

I took a couple of history classes, but I I write only the Regency period. So I've been really diving deep in that. And with each book, I have something else to research. And so I do feel like I've been getting layers and layers and layers, but I also feel every time I get a new layer, I'm then like, there's so much, I don't know.

I'm never going to know everything. So I think I know this, but what if I just haven't read the article that proves that I'm wrong?

[00:28:33] Caroline Lee: That's a really good point. And, but of course the point is by the time you get to your hundredth book, you've gotten a hundred layers of, of history and you can go look up.

the one extra that you need. Yes, and there have been times where readers have popped up. I've seen readers and reader groups that have popped up and said, actually, and to which you say, Oh, I will continue to research that because I have never heard of that before. Thank you very much. Yeah. Sometimes it's not true.

And sometimes it is. I find AI chat GPT to be very helpful in terms of research. And again, it's something that I tend to do at the end of the book, but I will go in and say, chat, tell me blah, blah, blah. Okay, now give me examples of blah, blah, blah.

Now give me sources so that I can then go to those sources and read the blah, blah, blah, to make sure that that is what I need. S silly examples, like three or four books ago, I needed, my character was obsessed, my heroine loves cheese and was obsessed with cheese and I, and every time I mentioned cheese in the book, I put a bunch of X's because I'm like, Future Caroline, this is your problem.

And, and then I started researching and it was very difficult to find a list of cheeses that would be available in 1880 London to the upper class. For some reason that's not a website. So I, I went into chat and I said, give me a list of 15 cheeses that would be available in an upper class household in 1880s London, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

And I said, okay, now give me the history of each of those cheeses and how it would get from its native land to 1880s London. So now I'm going through and I'm looking up like, but now I have some place to start. I can take that name and I can't Wesleydale or whatever. And I can, and I could go. Look that up and find out is this feasible that my heroine could be eating?

Oh, okay. Thank you Yes, check put that in the book someplace. Yeah things like that. I I find it very useful for Aggregating information from the internet and then allowing me to go look up specific things. Otherwise, yeah, it takes forever to yeah

[00:30:49] Katherine Grant: Oh, that's a really great tip. Well, it is time for our segment.

Are you a romantic?

Which do you trust more? Your heart, your gut, or your brain?

[00:31:02] Caroline Lee: My gut. It drives, it drives my engineering husband in like nuts.

I just feel like that's a good one. Let's do that.

[00:31:12] Katherine Grant: Do you believe in love at first sight?

[00:31:15] Caroline Lee: Oh, I mean, I believe in attraction at first sight. I mean, as a historical romance author, I should probably say yes.

[00:31:23] Katherine Grant: Okay. Is there a difference between lust and love?

[00:31:30] Caroline Lee: Well, yeah, I mean, yeah, love engages the brain and the heart and the, yeah, and lust just engages, you know, the other parts.

Do you believe in soulmates? Ooh, personally? I, I, I don't believe that there is one person out there for each person. I think that that is that's clearly the kind of stuff I like writing, but no, I think honestly, there is a way to be happy with many people in, in your life. So I would, I could argue you have a hundred soulmates and you just have to find one, that kind of thing.

All right. They're out there. But it's not like, I think it would be silly to assume there's only one person that you could possibly be committed to forever. Yeah, okay.

[00:32:22] Katherine Grant: And this is the final question. Why is romantic love important?

[00:32:26] Caroline Lee: I think in today's world and specifically, clearly we can survive individually. Without romantic love I think finding a romantic love, whether it be with a partner or a spouse or a best friend or something that, a romantic love that doesn't necessarily result in lust and sex is very important for understanding the people around us.

We live in a world that has unprecedented communication and understanding of people around us and people across the world. And the understanding that people are people, humans, humans are humans, no matter when they are, but also no matter where they are. And that your, your neighbor who is different than you is still the same in many ways.

Having the, that kind of love in your heart is vital to understanding that. You don't actually have to love your neighbor, but that guy, but loving somebody is going to teach you that. Yeah.

[00:33:29] Katherine Grant: I like that answer. I'm going to say you're pretty romantic.

[00:33:33] Caroline Lee: Am I? Yeah. I actually think my husband's super romantic and I'm like, I'm the dorky one.

He's always saying romantic things to me and I'm like, yeah, same. That's so cute. Okay.

[00:33:48] Katherine Grant: Well, thank you so much. This has been fantastic. Before we go, where can our listeners find you and read

[00:33:56] Caroline Lee: your books? My, the easiest place is my website, which is carolineleeromance. com. And it's got all of my links there.

I am most active on Facebook. So I have a very active, very active Facebook group called Caroline's Cohort. And we have a lot of fun. We post all the time. about all things Scottish, all things food related, all things funny, all things reading so if you're on Facebook, come find me at Caroline's Cohort otherwise find me on the website I am, I, it wasn't until you read my bio that I realized I to be quite funny on Tiktok, but I don't think I've been on Tiktok for that

[00:34:35] Katherine Grant: was my first.

I think I'd heard of you, but like when I first joined Tiktok, you were like the first person that it was serving up. And like, you were like, you're always dressed up and you're like, were on this like old timey telephone and you have all these like gags that you were doing. And I was just like, I'm never going to be able to do that.

But that is like.

[00:34:55] Caroline Lee: I had so much fun doing it, and I realized I was attracting people who enjoyed comedy not necessarily people who enjoy historical romance. And I was okay with that because that I firmly believe that my goal in life is to make people laugh and have fun and enjoy themselves. I was okay with that.

It just became so So not time consuming, but I was doing it so much and now they're telling us that we need to do it like three times a day in order to get traction and stuff like that. So yeah, I will probably go back to it, but maybe in a different manner. You might not see me dressed up quite so fancy.

Yeah.

[00:35:30] Katherine Grant: Well, in the meantime, I believe it would all be archived on your profile. So our listeners can still go check out your historical TikToks. Yeah.

[00:35:37] Caroline Lee: That's true. And they are fun. They are. You get to see me in costume.

[00:35:43] Katherine Grant: All right. Well, thank you so much, Caroline.

[00:35:45] Caroline Lee: so much for having me. This was so much fun.

Yes, it was.

[00:35:48] Katherine Grant: That's it for this week. Check out the show notes where I put links for my guests, myself, and the podcast. Until next week, happy reading.