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see us in studio. Welcome to Dedicated with Doug Brunt.

You have just gained access to an exclusive insider's look at the lives and works of some of your favorite authors and hear conversations with the world's greatest writers as they discuss their writing lifestyle, creative process, latest work, and behind-the-scenes revelations.

Welcome to Dedicated. Today we're with debut novelist Laura Dickerman. She jokes that, like

Laura Ingalls Wilder, she is a late bloomer to the publishing process, but man, has she done it

after a brief period of time at the Paris Review, which will become relevant to our conversation and years teaching high school English at some great schools around the country.

She has published Hot Desk, her debut, which is getting terrific reviews, including a rave from Kirkus, a hard-to-get starred review.

I read it. I loved it. And coming from publishing myself, as other reviewers

have observed, she has made some great commentary about the publishing business that is just

hilarious and totally spot on. And I can't wait to talk to Laura about it. Laura, welcome.

Thank you so much. I really appreciate it. It's so fun to be here, especially on Pub Day.

Yeah, on Pub. Yeah. So happy, happy publication day. Thank you. Thank you.

I also am excited about your cocktail choice, which I just learned is something your husband makes. So this has really got me under the gun. No pressure. This better be good. We're going to have the last word. Yeah. Did you squeeze all your own lines? I did not. I think this is 100%

you know, like maybe organic lime juice,

but I did not squeeze my own limes on this one.

I have done that in the past. It gets a little messy in here. Yeah. This is not an easy cocktail to make, but it's a good one. And I always like the name of it, the last word. I like to get the last word. I like words. It's a good one. We've got Bar Hill gin to start, which is from our pal Chris Bojallion up in Vermont.

Oh, yeah. That's where I'm from.

Okay.

I was going to ask you about that because I saw a reference in the book to the 76ers basketball team.

I'm from Vermont, yeah.

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