I took the kids to a pizza parlor to celebrate that I sold my first book and I was excited.

Then halfway through eating my damn pizza, I realized this is going to change my life and all of a sudden it was just there.

So I hyperventilated and I had to go home and go to bed for a little while.

That was the voice of Iris Johanson.

Formative voice of our lives.

Yes, Iris Johanson has been writing books

for a really long time and she is still writing a famous author now of a big

thriller series about a woman named Eve Duncan but she started out writing love

sweeps and I got to tell you. Her name came up on the Zoom and I did that thing where I lost my mind again. Like I thought I was going to be cool, but I wasn't.

She was great. It was really a delight. These are fun. We have a cool job. It's true. Anyway, everyone. Welcome to Fated mates. You will be listening next to our interview with Iris Johanson. I'm

Jennifer Procop, a romance reader and editor. I'm Sarah McClain, a romance

reader and author, and here we go. So one of the questions we just like to ask to start is like what

did bring you to romance or what made you a romance writer and reader?

Well, I'm a reader.

That's the main thing.

I'm a reader of any book.

And my first books were Tarzan, adventure and romance and everything like that when I was like nine years old something like that.

And I went from there to different romances,

even in the childhood phase.

And I didn't seek romance out.

I think it kind of sought me out because I always there was always

adventure in it and there was always a happy ending and let's face it we all need happy endings these days. It's the truth. So how did you come to

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