Defining Success, Embracing the Messy Middle, and Writing What Moves You -121

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Kristi Leonard [: 00:00:03

Welcome to Author Express. Thanks for checking us out. This is the podcast where you give us fifteen minutes of your time, and we give you a chance to hear the voice behind the pages and get to know some of your favorite writers in a new light. I'm one of your hosts, Christy Leonard, owner and host of Writers in the Wild retreats, nonfiction voice over artist, and president of WFWA. I'm excited to share with you a little about today's guest.

Kristi Leonard [: 00:00:39

My guest today is an Amazon and USA Today best selling author of eight heart stirring novels. Her latest, We Are Made of Stars, is billed as Virgin River meets White Lotus set at a cozy mountain inn. A Miami native, she began her career in entertainment with LA Weekly and the Box Music Network before swapping music for fiction. Now a full time author and devoted book lover, she shares her favorite reads on Aqua Magazine, in Miami, and in women's writers, women's books. She's living proof that life's best chapters often begin with an unexpected twist. Please welcome to the show Rochelle B. Weinstein.

Rochelle Weinstein [: 00:01:19

Hi, Kristi. Thank you so much for having me, and hi to everybody out there.

Kristi Leonard [: 00:01:24

So excited to have you. I have been a fan of yours, and I look at your career as one to emulate. It's such an honor to get to meet you.

Rochelle Weinstein [: 00:01:34

It's an honor to be here, and I will tell you what I tell all other future authors. You can do this. You've got this. Keep going.

Kristi Leonard [: 00:01:41

You got it. Well, we definitely have authors that listen to this show, so I'm sure they're thrilled to hear that. Alright. We like to ask our guests a question that we ask everyone, which is, tell me the most interesting thing about where you're from. And it can be where you grew up. It can be anywhere you've lived. We find out a lot about our guests when we ask this question.

Rochelle Weinstein [: 00:02:03

Oh, that's a great question. So I'm sitting here in my apartment in Miami, Florida, overlooking the water, I should say. Nice. And I went to college in Maryland, and I lived in Los Angeles. And then I came back to Miami. I did a lot of traveling to New York City when I was in the music business. And it's so interesting, because when I think about, you know, your question and all those places, I picture them in my brain. And every single one of those places has been rooted in in an experience in a story has shaped me into who I am, and has translated into a novel or a seed for a novel because place is just so inspirational for me.

Rochelle Weinstein [: 00:02:44

So, you know, home, I think of all these places as my home. But home is really the people and the places that surround you in these locations and everything that I've learned and experienced in each place.

Kristi Leonard [: 00:02:56

Oh, that's awesome. I love that. See? We definitely learned something about you. I love it. Alright. So we really need to get to know you as a person. Before we start talking about your books, although I have the feeling based on that answer that you are definitely all one and the same. But you've really had, like, a totally eclectic journey from music to motherhood to best selling author.

Kristi Leonard [: 00:03:21

So looking back, what experiences have most shaped the way you see the world and tell stories? You kind of hinted at it a little bit. Let's go a little deeper.

Rochelle Weinstein [: 00:03:32

I would say that certainly I've taken a lot of emotions and experiences from childhood and adolescence and adulthood and adulthood plus. And I fictionalize a lot of those emotions and experiences and what I've learned. And I feel I like to write books that entertain, but at the same time, I like to teach something, I like there to be some lesson, I want a reader to say, Hey, I recognize myself in this story. So I don't want to say that every one of my books is autobiographical by any stretch, but I I'm an observer of behavior, my own included. And I watch what's around us and I observe behavior. I like to study gray areas. You know, I don't think the world is so black and white. I just want my readers to take away an understanding.

Rochelle Weinstein [: 00:04:20

I mean, these are things that have shaped me to answer the question.

Kristi Leonard [: 00:04:23

Yeah.

Rochelle Weinstein [: 00:04:24

You know, I like to understand what motivates people and situations and why we think the way we do and why can't empathy and compassion come a little bit easier. So I take all of those little ingredients, and I turn them into a story.

Kristi Leonard [: 00:04:38

I love that. So you have been quite successful. You've got eight books, which is crazy to me because as we talked about before the show started, we're the same age. But I always like to ask this question. What do you think success looks like now compared to what the definition was when you started out?

Rochelle Weinstein [: 00:05:01

You know what? That's a great question, and you would expect it for most people that it would change. And my definition of success has never changed since the day I started writing to the what it is now. I'm gonna make this quick. But when I teach my classes, I always ask my future authors, you know, what is it they want from their writing? And it's interesting. I wanna be a New York Times bestseller. I wanna be a USA Today. I wanna sell a gazillion books. I wanna retire.

Rochelle Weinstein [: 00:05:28

I wanna buy a house. I never had any delusions about what I wanted for my books. I had something to write, I had something to tell and I wanted to put that out into the universe. And I ended up finding out like, after the fact that my first self published book hit the USA Today bestseller list. And this was after I got an agent after I got a publishing house. And I didn't have that accolade buoying me through some of the most difficult and challenging times of my career. So as I look back on that time in my life, and I look back now where I've I have relationships with readers, and I've, you know, I've sold books, whatnot, what success is for me is that I kept going on. It's not hitting the milestone.

Rochelle Weinstein [: 00:06:09

It is the perseverance. It's the journey. It's being able to have the worst possible day and all of us writers have it and being able to pick yourself up and keep going. That's the success in being a writer.

Kristi Leonard [: 00:06:23

I love that. That's absolutely true. And I think from someone like me who is what I call pre-published, someone like you who has published eight, I think that is that's ringing very true to me for sure.

Rochelle Weinstein [: 00:06:35

And I'm gonna interrupt Christy right now because, you know, she keeps using this comparison of, you know, me and her, but we are the same. And I have to tell you, it's not always what it looks like on social media. It's not an easy career. There are some highly esteemed authors out there that are still struggling that have some of them are giving up the business. It is not an easy business.

Kristi Leonard [: 00:06:59

Yes.

Rochelle Weinstein [: 00:06:59

So remember that on your journey.

Kristi Leonard [: 00:07:02

Absolutely. A 100%. So now we get to the part that I love the most because we get to talk about the book and I read your gorgeous book. One of the things that I absolutely love, I'm a sucker for a good title. Especially when I'm reading the book and I see the title in the book, that is the most positive thing that I can have is when I am reading the book, I'm like, oh, there it is. There's the title. I'm a total sucker. So we ask a very hard thing for our guests to summarize your book in one sentence.

Kristi Leonard [: 00:07:39

And I might have already done it in your

Rochelle Weinstein [: 00:07:41

You did it.

Kristi Leonard [: 00:07:41

Yeah. I did it.

Rochelle Weinstein [: 00:07:42

No. I have an I have an offshoot. It's One Week in Summer, Eight Lives Forever Changed. And you had mentioned Virgin River meets White Lotus set in a cozy mountain inn, but I am going to interject because if you've seen White Lotus this season, this book is not like that. Maybe past seasons. And if not, then maybe we go to like perfect, what's the book, Nine Perfect Strangers. That was a little pushing of the envelope there. But yeah, I would say one week in summer, eight lives forever changed.

Kristi Leonard [: 00:08:14

I am blown away by how you could have eight characters and have it so seamlessly going from one to the next. I don't know how you did it. It's phenomenal. Especially because each of them is facing, like, a turning point in their lives, like and just the way that you interspersed everything. What inspired you to set, like, all those journeys in a retreat like vis a vis, which I think is such a cool name for a retreat center?

Rochelle Weinstein [: 00:08:48

So the book was inspired by a real life inn in North Carolina where I used to go to, and they would have these gourmet dinners. The chef would cook for you at a communal table. So you would be with there there were 10 seats at that table. That was very ambitious. I went with eight. And I was just completely hyper focused and amazed by the dynamic of strangers and friends breaking bread at a table where there was copious amounts of wine being served. So I just basically it was it's again coming back to setting in place and being, like, inspired. But I I sat at that table, and I was like, I need to set a book at this table.

Rochelle Weinstein [: 00:09:24

Now there's the two owners of the inn that are based on the real life owners, Gaye and Frank, who I love and I call them friends, and their daughter Simone, they run the inn and then I had eight characters at the table of which I only had six point of views. And why I did that to myself, I have no idea. I'm still wondering why, but I it was intricate. It was complicated. It was challenging. But I felt like I needed to give each of these couples and some both people in the couples. I needed to have their voice, their perspective in order to, you know, to really feel like you were there amongst them and to also smooth out those gray areas, you know, and really get into the gray areas because you have different opinions.

Kristi Leonard [: 00:10:06

Yeah. And perspective is everything.

Rochelle Weinstein [: 00:10:09

Yeah. So I had to get into the meat of it and doing that was having multiple characters. Point of views.

Kristi Leonard [: 00:10:16

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Point of views. Exactly. Was there a particular relationship or character that surprised you when you were writing it?

Rochelle Weinstein [: 00:10:24

I was surprised at how I could identify with Rosalie and her mom. Not because, you know, they have an estranged relationship. Rosalie is a 15 year old girl, and every year, the two of the mother daughter duo go on a summer trip. And this year, Rosalie picked the inn because she wanted a peaceful environment so that she could share with her mom like an explosive secret. That didn't happen to me in real life. But I was so surprised at how connected I was to Rosalie. And then at the same time, I'm not connected because there's always like a 15 year old protagonist in my novels. And I'm there.

Rochelle Weinstein [: 00:10:58

There must be a You book in Rochelle Weinstein somewhere.

Kristi Leonard [: 00:11:01

Yes.

Rochelle Weinstein [: 00:11:02

Because I just feel so attuned to my that little girl in me and just capturing those angsty feelings. I'm a 15 year old. But I loved the dynamic between the mother daughter duo and how the big reveal reveals itself.

Kristi Leonard [: 00:11:20

Oh, it's masterful. Very, very masterful. It was very fun to read too. I read it actually quite quickly, which I think the way that you wrote all of the different characters made it easier to read to sort of get through it faster, where if you had one point of view, it might have been a little bit harder.

Rochelle Weinstein [: 00:11:40

No. Yeah. I've been hearing a lot that the short chapters, the quick chapters from each perspective moved it on quicker. We're trying to incorporate that into the book nine edits I'm doing right now.

Kristi Leonard [: 00:11:54

Wow. Book nine. That's awesome. So let's talk about your process. We'll have maybe time for one little question about your process. So what does your process look like from the spark of an idea to typing? So not you don't have to tell us about the process, but has it changed from your first book to your last book? When you're writing that many books, I can imagine your process gets more evolved.

Rochelle Weinstein [: 00:12:21

When I wrote my first novel, I literally sat down and a 10,000 words poured out of me.

Kristi Leonard [: 00:12:27

Oh my gosh.

Rochelle Weinstein [: 00:12:28

Then a couple books in, I did a little bit more outlining but found again that my characters took me where they wanted me to go. I get a spark of an idea. I write it down. And then my husband and I actually will go for walks like often, and we like, we'll flesh it out. And we'll talk about the plot. And well, you know, we'll figure out, I always like to have some big reveal, then I write up a synopsis. And I think writing up a synopsis is really the best way to sit down for the task of writing the novel. It's not as detailed as an outline, but it just basically tells me where the story is going to go which direction.

Kristi Leonard [: 00:13:08

So you're sort of a planter?

Rochelle Weinstein [: 00:13:12

Yeah. I think I'm more of a pantser. But there's elements of plotting for sure in there somewhere.

Kristi Leonard [: 00:13:18

And for those who don't know, a pantser is literally riding by the seat of your pants. Correct. Yes. And I have started out being a pantser and am sort of leaning to the dark side of outlining being maybe more suited to the way that I think, but I would never have guessed that when I started. So it's pretty interesting. Everybody does it differently.

Rochelle Weinstein [: 00:13:44

For sure. For sure. I am just so excited to sit down and write that I sometimes just skip over all the planning and outlining, and then I regret it when I'm in when I'm thick in the story and I'm like, oh, I should have taken more time and plotted this out. Like, I could never be a historical fiction writer. Woah.

Kristi Leonard [: 00:14:00

That sounds like such a really fun thing to do all that research, but then to have to take it all and put it into one cohesive story sounds very daunting. I am very impressed.

Rochelle Weinstein [: 00:14:11

I admire all historical fiction writers.

Kristi Leonard [: 00:14:14

Yeah. %. So I definitely visited your website, and I think that is a phenomenal place for people to go to find you. Do you have a substack? It sounds like you're also doing classes. Tell us the best way to find you.

Rochelle Weinstein [: 00:14:29

I have a newsletter, which I try not to. My goal at the start of it was once a month, but I just you know, I feel like you need to be authentic. And Yes. I can't force myself to put out a newsletter every month if I'm not feeling it. So when I'm feeling it, you'll get a newsletter from me. And I'm always doing giveaways. I'm always giving away books from my author friends. I'm pretty active out of all the social media on Instagram.

Rochelle Weinstein [: 00:14:54

And reader writers and readers can contact me directly through the website. I always respond. And if I don't, please let me know.

Kristi Leonard [: 00:15:03

Okay. That's good to know. And then we always end our very quick fifteen minutes with the question, what book or story inspires you the most?

Rochelle Weinstein [: 00:15:15

It's kinda like when you ask me, like, what's my favorite song? What's your favorite book? You know, it's like it's like saying who's what's your favorite child? Who's your favorite child? Mhmm.

Kristi Leonard [: 00:15:23

Totally.

Rochelle Weinstein [: 00:15:24

So no, here's the thing. I love a book that makes me feel something I like a book that I mean, look, I read everything. But I the most meaningful stories are the ones that I have a good cry or just hits me right in the gut. And I just feel all the feelings. Like, I need to be taken away somewhere and transported and feel every feeling.

Kristi Leonard [: 00:15:46

That sounds awesome. Well, I will tell you, having read a few of your books, that's exactly what you write.

Rochelle Weinstein [: 00:15:52

Oh, thank you. Thank you, Kristi.

Kristi Leonard [: 00:15:54

It has been such a joy to chat with you. And I'm so sorry that our podcast is so quick because I could talk to you forever. But thank you so much for being here and good luck with number nine.

Rochelle Weinstein [: 00:16:08

Thank you, Christy, and best of luck to you. Let me know if I can help in any way. Awesome.

Kristi Leonard [: 00:16:15

Thanks for joining us. We hope you take a second to give us stars or a review on your favorite podcasting platform, and we'll be here again next Wednesday. Follow us on Instagram at author express podcast to see who's coming up next. Don't forget, keep it express, but keep it interesting.