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Misty Urban Samples Miss Gregoire's Beginning
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Katherine Grant: Welcome to the historical romance sampler podcast. I'm your host, Katherine Grant, and each week I introduce you to another amazing historical romance author. My guest reads a little sample of their work, and then we move into a free ranging interview. If you like these episodes, don't forget to subscribe to the historical romance sampler, wherever you listen to podcasts and follow us on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube.
Now let's get into this week's episode. I am super excited to be joined today for another in my special series of authors reading from the Suffragette Uprising series today. It's Misty urban, and Misty, if you haven't listened to our other episode, which you should do., Misty fell in love with stories at an early age and has spent her life among books as a teacher, scholar, editor, writer, [00:01:00] and bookseller.
Her favorite stories take you new places, teach you new things, and end with a win. She especially likes romances about unconventional heroines who defy the odds and the unexpected heroes who woo them. So that's mostly what she writes when she puts down the book. She likes to take long walks, drag her family to new places, or hang out around water, dreaming up new stories.
Misty, thanks so much for coming on again.
Misty Urban: Thanks for having me. This is such a pleasure.
Katherine Grant: Yeah, so year book three in the Suffragette Uprising series.
Misty Urban: I'm the lucky Third.
Katherine Grant: Yes. And so just in case listeners are hopping on for the first time, I'm doing an interview with every author in the series, beginning with Andrea Janelle, whose book Spine of Steel came out in April.
Then she interviewed me for my book, which came out in May in the Wide open light. And now we have you for Miss Gregoire's beginning.
Misty Urban: Yes. I'm so delighted to be part of this [00:02:00] series. I'm such a fan of suffragettes in general, strong-minded, independent women.
Katherine Grant: Yeah, I, I'm, I'm a fan of the series too. I'm excited to be a part of it.
I'm so grateful to Andrea for putting it together.
What can, what would you like listeners to know about Miss Gregoire's Beginning?
Misty Urban: So in the spirit of the suffragette uprising, Miss Gregoire has a mission. She is coming to a new land with a cause. She wants to see justice done for her family. And of course, because this is a historical romance novella series, there's also a lover that she encounters.
And at First she thinks he's going to be an obstacle, then he becomes an ally, and then of course he becomes eventually the love of her life. He supports her cause. He leads her to achieve and fulfill her dreams, and he becomes part of her future in really unexpected ways that she didn't imagine. For readers of [00:03:00] my other historical romances in the Ladies least Likely series, there has been in the background of several books, this Mysterious Miss Gregoire's School, or Miss Gregoire's Academy for Genteel Young Ladies, and it's been established in Bath.
And what people don't know is that this is a breeding ground for radical ambitious women. Miss Gregoire is the kind of instructor who teaches her girls whatever they want. She allows them to exercise independent thought. She encourages their ambitions, and she's always been in my mind as this background figure who is you know, quietly rearing these subversive women who then go on to be the heroines of my ladies, least likely in a lot of cases.
And so when this opportunity arose to write about a woman, I thought, well, I'm gonna take this chance to explore her beginning, because I always knew she had a shady past and this was my chance to find out more about it.
Katherine Grant: I love it and I got a chance to read an early draft and I love the story. I [00:04:00] love Olympe and I love Michael. So is there anything we need to know about the scene before you start reading it?
Misty Urban: Olympe is from Alsace, which is a contested part of Europe between Germany and France. It's been in the 18th century, switched back and forth several times. It's predominantly German in character. It has its own language, it has its own very unique customs and culture, but it is currently ruled in the time of the story by the French, so they end up, please imagine, as I'm reading, that their common language is in fact French. Olympe's
English is not very good at this time, and Michael doesn't know much about Alsace at all. Certainly does not speak Alsation. So perhaps that's the only setup. She's coming from very far away.
I'll start with the very beginning, chapter one.
Her arms were stiff wooden paddles.
Her feet tree stumps. If rocks hidden beneath the gray blue waves cut at her feet, she didn't notice. [00:05:00] Her body was numb and had been since she'd left from the rowboat and the man who'd meant to kill her. Of course, he didn't say in so many words he meant to kill her. He'd whispered of something else, something he meant to do with her once they touched shore.
Something he said would ensure her safe passage through Plymouth and not a glance from the customs officer or the port officials, something that would make all this worth, his while, troublesome female that she was. What he offered was the opposite of safe. She'd taken her chances on the sea. Of course now, she was going to die on this beach if her heavy skirts allowed her to reach shore.
She moved her limbs forward through will alone, dragging her legs through the water, scooping it away with her palms. The beach floated ever out of reach, a silvery crescent glowing with early dawn. Her body was numb, but her heart had been numb for far longer. At least she had chosen her death like Gregor and Matis had, putting themselves in the way of Prussian shell for the cause of France and glory.
She had not been tortured and snuffed out in a [00:06:00] prison cell like her father, nor pushed to starvation like others of her homeland, than felled by plague like wheat in the field. There was something almost noble about it, dying alone on a foreign shore. She'd failed in her quest, but no matter. So many thousands had failed already and would fail again trying to protect their homes from the ravening maw of war.
Of course, she had chosen to wade ashore where there was barely a shore at all. Just stark gray cliffs rising straight from the sea and a hammered silver sky beyond. She laughed at herself, then spit out the salt water that leapt into her mouth from the spray. Her family would say this was typical Olympe to choose the harder way when there was a softer. Overburdening her basket at market rather than selecting no more than what she could carry.
Walking to the next mountain top village, rather than taking a cart. Swimming la marche, instead of taking the smuggler ship to shore and paying his unscrupulous fee all at once. The tide gave way as if the earth had tilted, and she slogged onto a [00:07:00] pebbled shore. The tiny rocks were rough and cool as she fell to her hands and knees.
She rubbed one between her fingers, surprised at the texture tracing the tiny prints embedded in the hard surface. One design was an arch with flares, depending from the spine. Another sunburst curling in on itself like a pill bug. Secret symbols or ancient hieroglyphs here to mark her passage into the next world. She stretched out her body giving into the pole of her sod and clothing and lay her cheek against the stones.
A small ray of light molten gold peaked around the edge of the eastern cliff and fell on her face as warm and gentle as a mother's touch. Olympe smiled and heaved a restful sigh. The numbness was a blessing holding off the pain of waiting. She would see them all again soon.
The woman wasn't moving. This was not how Michael wanted to begin his day. Flotsam washed up from wrecks. He could understand, [00:08:00] or goods the smugglers had jettisoned before the excise officer sees them, but not people. Perhaps she'd fallen. Michael scrambled on the slopes where the spokes of green, late summer grass made a more navigable surface in the sharp cliffs where the woman lay face down on the rocks. Baird more adept on four feet than Michael was on two, picked his way across the uneven stones and pushed his snout against the woman's pale cheek.
Was he imagining things or did she stir? Michael caught himself as his walking stick slid on the flat sided fossil. He landed on his feet on the beach with a jarring thud, then briskly made his way to the woman. She lay in a pile of lavender petticoats and a blue embroidered jacket, her hair a dark wet clump.
Her face was disguised under the tongue of his dog, who gave her a determined lick. She raised a small, pale hand and pushed the dog away. Baird, encouraged by the sign of life, licked her hand. Her eyes fluttered open. Michael didn't quite understand what she muttered, but if it was French, [00:09:00] it sounded like hounds of hell.
He crouched by her side, ignoring the shriek of pain in his bum leg. The thing was one constant roar of pain these days. Damp or dry, warm, or cold. The ache was a companion as faithful as his hound, though less welcome. He reached for his rusty French.
"You're not in hell, madam. Can you rise?"
She muttered something in another language that was not German or Dutch.
He guessed a question concerning her whereabouts. "You are in England," he informed her. She rolled to her side with a groan and cast a look of despair at the ragged carved cliffs, rising like a curtain wall of an ancient castle. "Angleterre," She muttered and the word was imbued with more derision than which she had uttered hell.
"But still earth. Are you hurt?"
She squinted her eyes at him. The path of her gaze followed his outline, his plain wool coat, the leather breaches, cocked hat, and the sturdy boots he wore for his daily tramps. [00:10:00] He looked a common laborer, not a gentleman of some distinction.
"Are you an angel?" She asked sounding rather more alarmed than impressed at the notion. Her French held an accent
he couldn't identify, some dialect grown far from Paris. How a French woman washed up on a Dorset beach, he dearly wanted to know. Michael snorted and leaned back on his heels. His thigh screamed. "Far from an angel."
"You're glowing," she said dreamily, and he wondered if she might be touched in the head. Then she reached out her hand fingers, wrinkled from the water and touched his knee, testing his solidity.
All of a sudden, his leg didn't hurt anymore. "The sun is behind me," he said, gruffly. The swish of water along the pebbled shore reminded him. "And the tide is coming in. We'd best move you." He stood first, bones creaking, and held out his arm, leaning on his cane, where 10 years ago he'd have lifted her in his arms and carried her up the slope,
perhaps to the [00:11:00] public house for shelter or to his own house. Though it lay half a mile away, the exertion would've meant nothing to him. But that was 10 years ago. "Nothing broken. That's a relief." She pushed up into a sitting position, and he saw her more clearly. A linen cloth unraveled from around her neck, barely clinging to the deep bodice, framing a lovely set of breasts.
Her fitted jacket tucked into a trim waist and flared over the pleats of her petticoat. If she'd had an apron, it had washed away. Along with her cap, she was dressed like a commoner and displayed none of the mincing ways of a well-bred English gentlewoman. She took his hand in a sturdy grip and hauled herself to her feet with an unladylike grunt.
The top of her matted dark brown curls came to his nose. She tipped back her head to study his face, and Michael sucked in his breath. She was uncommonly beautiful. Her eyes were large and heavy lidded, under high arched brows. Her nose was a straight slope with just a hint of perfectness at the [00:12:00] tip. Her chin might be dainty, but her mouth was not.
It was a wide slash with full pink lips and her smile showed all her teeth were yet in place. One front tooth slightly overlapping. The other... "the angel Gabriel," she said. He stared into her eyes feeling strangely as if the water had suddenly swirled around them, pulling out his balance, tugging him off his feet.
She was on the young side of womanhood, her skin clear, a skimmed cream, and the cool warning wind teased the pink bloom of sea thrift into her cheeks. The earth and stones of the beach washed out beneath him, leaving him suddenly at sea. "Michael," he said, his voice rough. "My name is Michael." "Chief of the archangels," she murmured. A bark from Bayer, drew her attention with a dog. He hauled in a breath, freed for the moment from the potent spell of her eyes. "And you fell off a passing boat,"
he guessed, "or took an evening swim in your own land and were [00:13:00] washed across the channel by the tides. Or are you a silkie and you forgot to don your seal coat before you swam out to sea?" She stepped forward and gasped sharply clutching at his arms. He slid his hands to her waist and caught her. The fabric was cold and damp beneath his palms, but the slender body beneath was firm and would be warm.
An outrageous urge seized him to tuck her close, fit her hips against his, wrap his arms around her narrow shoulders, and press her breasts against his chest. It had been quite some time since the nearness of a woman struck him with such craving, sparking a fire deep in his gut. Why this one? Carefully, he studied her, keeping a respectful distance.
Pretend Netta was watching, he told himself, pretend his mother was here. "Are you hurt?" He asked again. She winced, one side of her lovely mouth drawing into a pucker. "The rocks, they're sharp. I've lost my slippers." They both stared at her feet. Her stockings, wool, not dainty silk, were torn beyond [00:14:00] repair. Her toes peeked through the rips, nails like tiny seashells. His gut and tightened at the sight of her skin
beared to the world. "I can try to carry you." He shifted on his feet, bracing himself, holding out his arm, but he favored his right leg and that betrayed him. She regarded his walking stick than him. There was no scorn in her gaze, no disappointment. No sudden decision that his limp made him less than a man. Yet.
"May I have your arm?" "Of course." She pitched toward him again as a rock turned beneath her soul, and he caught her easily, lightly, as if they'd rehearsed the move, as if he were prepared, had been preparing for years for this woman to fall into his arms.
Katherine Grant: What a beautiful scene. Thank you so much.
I have lots of questions for you, but first we're gonna take a quick break for our sponsors.
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Katherine Grant: Well, I am back with Misty Urban who just read us a sample from miss Gregoire's beginning.
A beautiful sample. You mentioned as you were setting it up that you had this character, Olympe Gregoire in your work already, and you'd kind of been wondering. What's her deal? And so I'm curious, 'cause this scene is so vivid and so beautiful as almost literally a death and a rebirth scene to begin her life again.
How much of her story did you already have in you, [00:16:00] and did you already know that this was where the story started?
Misty Urban: Oh, this is a fun question. So I knew these things going in. Her name was not Gregoire. She'll acquire that. This is why it's her beginning and she has jewels sewn into her skirts.
That's why they're especially heavy. There are hints throughout that, you know, she's really attached to this lavender petticoat. She won't let it out of her sight. She has stolen the family jewels. And that was all I knew and that she would start this school. And she'd become a mentor. I hope to lots of young women, so.
When I began with the romance, I thought, okay, so who is the match for this woman? And because we're talking about suffragettes and because she's always been Miss Gregoire, I knew, spoiler alert, this isn't going to end in a conventional marriage. At least not where she takes his name and she lives with him because she has this really important job.
So I started with knowing she was on the run from something. [00:17:00] And I knew I had to end with her starting the school. That was what I wanted. But where he fit in, I had no idea. So I thought, well, what's a good romantic meet cute for somebody who, you know, has just I have this fascination with the lady of the lake, with water women.
Mm-hmm. Just. It, I seem to work this motif into my stories a lot. So for some reason when I thought about how she made it to England, it was not just casually sailing on a ship. I wanted her to be this, almost like you said, a complete rebirth. She's lost everything except what she's wearing, and she comes out of the water and she has to start brand new and there he is.
And I had a little bit of fun with that image that she thinks, oh, you look exactly like an angel, even though you know he's far from it.
Katherine Grant: Yeah, no, I love it. And for me, a nineties Disney kid, it's imprinted Little Mermaid for me, so a very epic meet cute.
Misty Urban: That's probably [00:18:00] deeply behind my inspiration, and also I get to say this in the author's note, she's washed up in Lyme Regis, which in a few years will be the site where Mary Anning is finding her fossils.
She's washed up on what is now the Jurassic Beach with these amazing little fossils all over the Rocky Beach, all over these cliffs. It's an extremely dramatic scenery, and I just threw it right in there. So that was really fun too, to work in. I love that history, even though I couldn't say anything about Mary Anning because she's not even born yet.
Katherine Grant: At what point did you discover that historical tidbit to work it in? Did you know that before you started writing the scene?
Misty Urban: Mary Anning came up in my research for the very first historical romance I wrote. And it's not published yet. This is about a mathematician, so I was researching scientific women of the early 19th century, and so of course Mary Anning came up. Mother of geology, she's finding all these fossils. And what fascinates me is that this is a time where it's still [00:19:00] accepted that there was a flood.
That the earth is 6,000 years old, like this is still common in scientific community. And Mary is saying, but look, there's all these interesting little creatures. What if there's some other explanation? And it takes Darwin and it takes this fellows and it takes evolution to find a place for them. But initially she is sort of
scoffed at. They're like, oh, that cute little Mary Anning playing with her stones. And she's found something profound. She's invented a whole discipline. She's rearranging the history of the known world. So that it added so much context and interest to my story.
I wanted her to wash up on a beach. Plymouth was a very active port during this time. Then that whole dramatic sweep around Lyme Regis around the island of Portland, which will come up later, is just really interesting too, with myths of mermaids. So that fit right in.
Katherine Grant: Yeah, it's lovely. It's lovely. I, this is kind of a big question, but I think you can handle it.
Misty Urban: Hope So. [00:20:00]
Katherine Grant: A critique that is often lobbied against romance novels in general is that they can't be feminist because they are centering the woman's story on she has to find happiness in the context of love, often with a man, but just in general, like, oh, she has to fall in love to be happy. And I've thought about this a lot in particular with the suffragette uprising because this series is very explicitly, let's talk about women who are fighting for rights, fighting the status quo.
Mm-hmm. What are your thoughts on that critique and how do you approach it in your fiction?
Misty Urban: Always with one eye towards: Yes, I am rewriting the heteronormative script. Yes, it's a, it's a question I ask myself too. Why am I drawn to this genre that is in part so deeply heteronormative and why do I keep writing that?
And it's because the romantic in me wants the happy ever after. The [00:21:00] romantic in me wants them to find a love story that is nurturing and fulfilling on their own terms. A long time ago, the, I'm gonna try to recall her name to mind and I know she's on the shelf behind me. Pamela, her name will come to me,
did deep dive into the romance and why women love it. And her conclusion was that it's because it enacts the fantasy of the nurturing partner who is the equal, who supports the woman in becoming her best self. It's a meeting of minds. He supports her ambition and the best ones, you know, he doesn't ever break her.
There's might be a lot of conflict, but always in the end she emerges into this new self. She finds new parts of herself in love. In my romances, i've always felt because I'm deeply feminist and because I am a scholar and because I have always been [00:22:00] interested in women who want more than just love, they also want a career.
I've also always been drawn to writing these historicals with women who are in just single-minded pursuit of that ambition, and then the man comes along and gets in the way. So it ends up that they get their happy ending and their career. Do they have it all? I don't know. I've scripted them into times that are historically limiting towards women as well.
How do you work a feminist narrative into a world where women can't own property, can't vote, can't have any custody of their own children if something happens? You know, those are questions. I think it's worth exploring. And there have always been independent women, feminist women, protofeminist women there too.
So I think the way I justify it to myself, the reading and writing of romance, is that this is about a woman discovering herself and finding fulfillment, and I'm all for that. And it so happens that she's finding fulfillment [00:23:00] in realizing her dreams and finding love, and why not try to have both of those things?
So much of the world is trying to tell us, you have to make, you know, and in practical terms, there's only 24 hours of a day. I completely understand. There are compromises. There are sacrifices, but to find fulfillment in a broad number of things, I think women deserve that, and that's what I wanna see happening in the books that I read and write.
Katherine Grant: I love that. I think the idea that we can integrate it so that we can be happy in multiple spheres and find success in multiple spheres, and also that success in a relationship is worth it in addition to success in other spheres. For me, a nice thing to think about.
Misty Urban: I think the idea that you have to sacrifice something is very modern, because if you look at the Superwomen of 19th century England and 18th Century England and early [00:24:00] England, they almost always have families.
They almost always have, you know, like all of these little kids behind them. Of course, they probably have domestic help, but they can be doing something else too. They're managing the household accounts, they're running an estate, they're inventing something, they're writing at the same time. It doesn't seem to be... I suppose that's the origin of the, of the debates and the anxiety about it, right?
When women start edging into what are considered male realms, and then there has to be some. Mm-hmm. Sort of line drawing, but no, you have to be the domestic angel. You have to be the angel in the house. This is the woman's sphere, you know, that becomes so sharply demarked in the 19th century and it's still under discussion in the 18th.
And I think that's one reason that a lot of my work so far set there. It's far less decorous.
Katherine Grant: Yeah. And I think another thing that you kind of tease [00:25:00] in this novella is different cultural conceptions of femininity. Like Olympe has different rules that she was raised to follow than the English women that she encounters.
Is there anything about that to share with the listeners?
Misty Urban: Just that it was really fun to research and think about. So Olympe has gone to girl schools in Paris. That's where her kind of finishing school was. And there's this perception and at least among 18th century English that, you know, the French, they're so sophisticated.
I think there's still some element of that going around. They're just a little bit fast, those French girls, and there's an element of independence that she doesn't question. Why wouldn't I think for myself, why wouldn't I make decisions? She doesn't feel crippling guilt over rebelling against what her mother wants for her, which is conventional marriage to a man who's
got a title and will help elevate the family, and she says no and she takes off, or she has good reasons. I like to think she has good [00:26:00] reasons. But yeah, I think that independence of mind is something that's really unique to the 18th century as well, which is funny because it's the most outrageous
fashions, you know, like when you think of how much they're carrying around in those enormous skirts and the wigs and the rest of it, you know, you have those tight bodices and the rest, the, the fashions are just over the top, but the thinking around women's roles is still being played out, which I find
Katherine Grant: right, because it was the era of enlightenment without any of the revolution.
So people weren't threatened by these radical ideas that could upend status quo.
Misty Urban: Yeah. Yes, exactly. That's, I think that's part of the fun of the period. There's just so much changing and everything sort of feels culturally, like the ground is shifting under their feet. Mm-hmm. Everyone's trying to negotiate their way.
Yeah. And then, you know, Europe is full of wars at the same time too, so [00:27:00] you have to think about the consequences of that. And I think that too has lent to her Olympe's independence because her father you know, died in prison and her stepfather's on the other side now. So their castle is being contested.
Her sister's at the center of it. That's kind of her driving conflict. And so she is the one left to do something. Her brother's dead. Her brother got killed in battle. The heir is gone. It's her now and her sister. So what do you do when you're left? What do you do when war leads you with, you know, that wreckage?
How do you rebuild? How do you fix it?
Katherine Grant: Yeah. You get a great story out of it that I
Misty Urban: hope so.
Katherine Grant: I
Misty Urban: really like that. I really had fun writing her.
Katherine Grant: All right, well in your previous episode with me, you did play Love It or Leave It. So instead for this episode, we're gonna play. Would you rather?
Misty Urban: Yay.
Katherine Grant: Okay. Would you rather a Cinderella story [00:28:00] rags to riches or a fall from Fortune?
Misty Urban: To read or to write?
Katherine Grant: Mm hmm. Give me both.
Misty Urban: Okay. To read a Cinderella story, such a sucker. Such a sucker for the Cinderella story. But to write, you want that maximum conflict, right? You want a real problem that she has to solve that has to force her to grow. So I love writing these women who've just kind of started with nothing or have nothing or have had something significant taken away, but then they rebuild.
So it's kind of the fall from Fortune and then the climb back up. Can I have that?
Katherine Grant: Yes. Yes you can.
Misty Urban: I'm gonna break the rules. I just do it.
Katherine Grant: Would you rather secret baby or amnesia?
Misty Urban: Amnesia. Because I do not like the secret baby. I do not like that. Oh, we have to be forced into parenthood now because there's this surprise baby.
And the secret baby. I'm like, that's just rude. [00:29:00] Don't hide a baby. Like, yeah, don't hide the baby. I, I, I walk away. I know there's a lot of interest in that, but that's not for me, the secret baby. I'm like, I want babies to be welcomed and a point of joy.
Katherine Grant: Yeah. Okay. Would you rather a rake who needs reform or a hero who needs to learn to stand up for himself?
Misty Urban: Oh, the alpha and the cinnamon roll. I'm gonna pick the cinnamon roll every time. I'm gonna pick the beta every time. I think that's because of what I'm attracted to in real life. Like very, you know. Aggressive men. I'm like, no, thank you. We don't have a lot to talk about. My husband is the biggest squishy cinnamon roll he is.
Got such a good heart. The reformed rake, that's interesting. I liked that trope when I was younger. I was really attracted to the idea that, oh, he's just so naughty and love will reform him. But as I become more cynical, I'm like, people don't change that much and giving [00:30:00] that much power to passion. And the woman, like she's in charge of reforming him.
No, he needs to grow up. He needs to grow up and being a man who is fit for her. And so that's why I like the man who has to learn to stand up for himself.
Katherine Grant: Yeah. I feel like the reformed rake comes with a lot of emotional labor and I think that's why I am never, never into them.
Misty Urban: Mm-hmm.
Which the funniest part was I've committed to writing a rake story for an anthology that's coming out later this year. So here we go. I have to try to make this convincing though. I have to try to like this guy.
Katherine Grant: I have faith in you. You can do it. I hope. All right. Would you rather: first person present or any type of narration but it's told through alternating flashbacks with the present?
Misty Urban: Hmm. It would be first person present.
Katherine Grant: Okay.
Misty Urban: I find it really interesting that so much romantic is doing that now. [00:31:00] Historical women's fiction. I think of Philippa Gregory, she. She was doing that when a lot of other people weren't. And now it's become kind of a style. Flashbacks I find really tricky and I very easily get lost, so.
Mm-hmm. Let's just try to be as chronological as possible. Although that said, I do love really clever plotter who can break apart her story, and then by the end of it you see exactly what the narrative was, but it's told in pieces. Yeah. Someday. Someday I'll be that clever. It's a goal.
Katherine Grant: My question is always how much did they know when they first started writing it, and how much of that is done in revision?
Misty Urban: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. With this story, I had to go back and plant because halfway through I forgot that she had the jewels in her skirts, and I'm like, oh, I have to mention that. Like, you know, she can't just be like throwing it away or leaving it somewhere. She wouldn't do that. That was one thing where like, yeah, I had to go rework that.
Katherine Grant: [00:32:00] Yeah. Okay. And the last one, would you rather angsty third act breakup, or bonus epilogue?
Misty Urban: The angsty third act breakup. And I know, I know, I know. I get all the reasons why people hate it, especially if it's forced, especially if it's like some ridiculous communication or heated something bad back in the end of act two, and now it's coming back to bite them. But I am a fan of that narrative arc where it looks like
everything's broken. And then how do you come back from that? You have to really evaluate what you want and if this is good enough. And so to me, that angsty third act breakup, whether it's truly a real parting, you know, we can't ever be together or it's something else that comes between them. I love the dramatic punch of that.
Like you really have to figure out, you really have to [00:33:00] want this. You know, you're not forced together by a secret baby. You're not forced together by the arranged marriage. You are choosing each other and you're gonna overcome those obstacles so you can be together. And
Katherine Grant: I love that it drives such a great catharsis.
Misty Urban: Yes, yes. If I'm crying and laughing together, that book is the keeper.
Katherine Grant: Well, Misty, thank you so much for playing with you rather. Thank you. Miss Gregoire's Beginning is part of the Suffragette Uprising series on Kindle Unlimited, and it is out this week when this podcast airs. So where can listeners find you and your other books?
Misty Urban: So the first place I would send them is my website, misty urban.com.
I am on Facebook as author Misty Urban, and I'm also a member of the Wanton Wallflowers Historical Romance Readers Group. As are [00:34:00] you. Yes, and I would invite readers to come find both of us there because we have a marvelous time.
I'm on Instagram as author Misty Urban. And I am also on BookBub as Misty Urban writes, so you can pop over there and see when I'm reading.
Katherine Grant: Awesome. Well thank you so much. I am so excited to have this series with you and I'm so glad you came back on the podcast.
Misty Urban: Thanks so much for having me. It's been.
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