Hi, this is Vivi Owens, and you're listening to the award-winning podcast. Moms don't have time to read books.

And speaking of books, I have two of my own books coming out this spring and summer.

Princess Charming is a picture book, which debuts on April 19th. And Bookends, a memoir of love, loss, and literature.

Comes out on July 1st, and it is truly a labor of love.

I hope you'll pre-order, order, and join me on tour as I go across the country.

You can find out more at Zibiowens.com or bookendsmemoir.com.

And you can follow me on Instagram at Zibby Owens because I always post about everything. Enjoy the show.

Catherine Hiney is the author of Early Morning Riser, a novel. She's also the author of single

Carefree Mello, a collection of short stories. Her fiction has been published in The New Yorker,

The Atlantic, Plow Shares, Glimmer Train, and many other places. She lives in Washington, D.C. with her husband and children. Welcome, Catherine. Thank you so much for coming on moms. Don't have time to read books to discuss early morning riser. Thank you. It's my pleasure. Are you an early morning riser, by the way? No, no, not at all. Not at all. I am, if left to my own devices, I go later and later and

later until I'm just like around the clock, like switched to be nocturnal. Yeah. Nice. I had a third

child when my twins were like seven and a half or six or something. Anyway, they were like,

and they were learning about nocturnal and diurnal in school and they're like, mommy, you think you're actually

nocturnal. It does feel that way these days. But anyway, okay, early morning riser. Please tell

everybody, I'm sure so many people listening have already read this because this book has been so

successful and amazing, but tell listeners what it's about. Oh, I'm really bad at elevator pitches, but it's about a school

teacher who moves to a small town and becomes involved with the local Lothario and then a car

accident that changes all their lives. And I would guess it's about acceptance and family, which makes it sound really boring. But that's as close as I can come to saying what it's about. I need to have better elevator pitches. I think that's pretty good. I mean, I do also feel like it's like this quest for love, but it's so funny.

I mean, the way you write about it, it's like the whole tone of it and the way Duncan comes in and out of Jane's life over time is just, it's just perfect.

She has this kind of laid back feeling about it, like she's so passionate and then she's okay with what happens. And I don't know. I like the trajectory of her passion, I guess. I'm not saying that very well. But do you know what I'm going to say? When I started writing it, it was just going to be a story that happened in real time. But then I kept realizing that I wanted to see Jane over several years

and especially her relationship with Duncan

and like that first part of the relationship was so passionate.

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