Author Ariel Sullivan is making her debut with Conform, a dystopian romance set in a post-apocalyptic world,

and the very first book published under my new imprint, Thousand Voices. Born into a military family, Ariel spent her

childhood moving from base to base, finding a constant companion in books and stories. She always

dreamed of being a writer, but she let her inner critic keep that dream job just out of reach.

That changed one night during a difficult time in her life when the idea

for conform came to her in the middle of the night. What started as a private escape became the

beginning of a nine book series. Ariel introduced her book to me in the most unexpected way

during a play date for our sons. That moment led to a beautiful friendship.

I sat down with Ariel to talk about her journey from stay-at-home mom to publish author,

how she turned her struggles with postpartum depression into art,

and why she believes stories have the power to heal.

I'm Jenna Bush-Hager.

Welcome to my podcast, Open Book with Jenna.

Music I'm Jenna Bush-Hager. Welcome to my podcast, Open Book with Jenna. I'm so happy, Ariel, to be with you. For those that don't know, you're the debut writer of Conforum, which is the first book from my imprint, Thousand Voices. I love that we get to do this here.

I'm so excited to be here. So, first of all, talk to me about what this book is. Like, what would be your elevator pitch? I know what it is, and I now know it very, very well. But how would you describe it to readers?

I would say that this is a dystopian romance trilogy of trilogies that takes place in the clouds, and it follows a 27-year-old woman whose worth is in her jeans as she

enters a procreation contract, and she finds herself stuck between her mate, who is at the top of the

society, and a love interest at the bottom of the society, and there's a brewing rebellion.

There's a brewing rebellion. It's so much fun this book. I found, like, I would describe it

as Hunger Games meets Handmade Tale, like it's dystopian, but it has this world-building world.

You know, and I think it's so interesting that this world came to you during COVID. So talk to me a little bit about the genesis of this book,

about, you know, how you came to it, what was going on in your life, and why this world felt

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