Welcome Alli and Asha, we’re excited to have you on Reader’s Entertainment. First, tell our readers a bit about yourself. Where you’re from, where you live? Is writing your full-time job?
Alli: I grew up in rural Washington state (total farm girl, a Jewish one at that), but went to school back East, lived in San Francisco for 20 years, Seattle for eight, and now I am in Sun Valley, Idaho. I write full-time, but also work with students on their boarding school, college, and graduate school essays.
Asha: I grew up in Seattle, Washington; third generation of six and going strong. After spending many years in California for school, I brought my husband back with me and raised my sons in the city. Writing is my full time job.
How long have you been writing?
The two of us have been writing fiction together for seven years. Four books in seven years. Not going to lie, we are a little tired!
What does your typical writing day look like?
Alli: My writing day doesn’t start until about 10:00AM-ish. I have to get my girls out the door to school, and then I have to get a good workout in, or I can’t sit down to write, my body too fidgety and my brain is too flighty. Then from about 10AM – 2PM writing and after two answering emails, doing the business side of books, having calls (most of them with Asha) and/or running errands and taking care of day-to-day life.
Asha: Social media is one of my tasks as part of this partnership and I always begin with checking electronic communications. I take care of my mother who lives with me and is my most enthusiastic beta reader. I write in spurts throughout the day since keeping my body busy seems to spark my ideas. My children are adults so my day is my own to do with what I like.
Tell us about your latest release? Where the idea came from?
Our newest book is Boss Lady, out July 2, 2024.
As comedic writers, we absolutely love the remarkably talented Julia Louis-Dreyfus. Her character, “Elaine” from Seinfeld, was brilliant, but oh do we wish we could vote for Selina Meyer for president. On January 18, 2021, Julia appeared on the podcast Smartless with Will Arnett, Jason Bateman, and Sean Hayes. During the interview, the hosts asked Julia what she would do if she wasn’t an actor. Julia responded that she would work in an airport and that she “would drive the go-cart that takes the old people to the gate;” that that would be a cool job. (Can’t you just hear her saying it?) We doubt Julia imagined her offhand comment at the end of an hour-long interview with three silly men would be the ember that sparked the idea for Antonia Arroyo and Boss Lady. In fact, it did, and now we owe Julia Louis-Dreyfus a huge debt of gratitude.
Could you share one detail from your current release with readers that they might not find in the book?
The entrepreneurial and company founding ideas that are in the book we came up with ourselves. We are now getting asked all the time if we have any plans to start one of these companies. We are more creatives than capitalists, so no, we don’t have any start-up plans ourselves, but it was fun to explore the business side of ourselves.
Who has been the most difficult character for you to write? Why?
Alli: Of our four books, I would say Gloria Arroyo, our protagonist’s mother in Boss Lady was the most challenging for me. She hit close to home for me as the relationship that Gloria and Toni share is not unlike the relationship I have with my mother, where she has been more invested in the beauty side of being a female whereas I have always focused on the brainy aspects of being a woman.
Asha: I don’t struggle writing any one particular character but I do wrestle with a desire to honor each character’s life experience and portray it with empathy. I aspire to inspire understanding for people who make choices I would not and to encourage readers to do the same. It’s tough to write an unlikeable cast member and to also allow room for their potential redemption but I enjoy the challenge.
If you could be one of your characters for a day which character would it be?
Alli: If I could be one character for a day I would either be Aunt Viv from our first book Tiny Imperfections or Sylvia Eisenberg of Boss Lady. It is so fun to write older women who speak exactly what is on their minds because if we are writing it for these octogenarian characters, then trust me, we are thinking it, too!
Asha: If I could be any of our characters for a day it would be Josie from Tiny Imperfections. I am the opposite of a fashionista and I have never worn heels so I think I would enjoy the feeling of feeling fierce in my clothes. Her wardrobe is enviable!
If you could spend the day with your character, what would you do? What would that day look like?
Alli: I would spend the day sitting at the kitchen table yapping away with Zwena while Toni cooked up batch after batch of sweet plantains one of my all-time favorite foods that I had, in fact, for the first time in Vieques, Puerto Rico years ago. YUM!
Asha: I was a science fan as a kid – particularly astronomy. If I could spend the day with Toni we’d surely geek out about experiments we did as kids while on a visit to the planetarium.
What’s your take on research and how do you do it?
Alli: I can answer this for both of us – I AM the Alli and Asha Productions research department. I do it all, usually while Asha is owning our communications accounts because there is nothing I detest more than social media. So, to all those people out there wondering if writing as a pair is hard, I say it is the best because you can divide and conquer based on personal strengths and areas of interest!
What’s the most fun thing about being an author?
Alli: Hands down writing with Asha. We crack each other up. All. The. Time.
Asha: I look most forward to connecting with readers. Meeting new people gasses me up, fills my tank, and provides me with material for creating new characters. Talking about my books with fellow book lovers is a treat.
Do you write multiple books at once, or one at a time?
Alli: I don’t write multiple books at a time, and I don’t read multiple books at a time – I’m not that talented.
Asha: Marketing a current book, writing the next, and planning for a future one of our books is enough all at once. Doing twice the work in any one of those lanes might run us right off the road so we work together to stay focused.
What’s your favorite writing tool? — software, app, notebook, etc.
Alli: For each book I have a big notebook of constant thoughts, ideas, musings. I don’t write the actual manuscript in the notebook it is just scribbles, brainstorms, nonsense etc….It is so fun, after a book is finished, to go back and read through the notebook and see what we actually used, what got scraped and what never even made it on the page.
Asha: I have notebooks and notepads stashed everywhere – even in my car. Ideas pop into my mind at inconvenient times so I have to keep paper and pen in convenient spots to keep it all straight. I have a strong hand to brain connection so I do a lot of writing away from my computer.
Are there any particular authors that have influenced how you write?
Alli: Honestly, no. I read a ton – fiction, non-fiction, The New York Times, Washington Post and The Atlantic (Oh, and I devour People magazine whenever I am at the doctor or dentist), but what influences how I write is the sense of humor that Asha and I share that we have not found in voice or spirit in any other author or their characters. That is why we claim we write com-rom rather than rom-com.
Asha: Toni Morrison is an inspiration for me as a writer. Her ability to write concise and powerful sentences, and her use of a single word to convey an array of feelings is awesome. For me, Ms. Morrison sets the bar.
Do you have a secret talent readers would be surprised by?
Alli: This is the least sexy talent ever, but I am a crazy minimalist. If something comes in my house something goes out. There are no junk drawers to be found and if anyone in my family hasn’t used or worn something within the last six months, bye-bye!
Asha: I was a member of a traveling circus and acrobatics team and I can still juggle, double-dutch, and ride a unicycle. Tumbling and doing backflips are no longer in my wheelhouse but I could probably bust out a cartwheel.
Your favorite go to drink or food when the world goes crazy!
Alli: Scorching hot English Breakfast tea and Trader Joe’s Corn Dippers with their Cowboy Caviar salsa. But not together, even I know that’s gross.
Asha: I am a dedicated home cook taught by women raised in the country in the South. Sweet tea and soul food have a history of soothing the soul, and they do it for me.
What is your writing kryptonite?
Alli: Asha knows I will break out in hives if we don’t hit all our deadlines. I can’t stand not doing what we say we will do by when we say we will do it. I guarantee you Asha is going to say my corn chip crumbs in the keyboard and people who confuse there, their, and they’re…
Asha: Alli is right…both of those things make me nutty.
What is the one question you never get ask at interviews, but wish you did? Ask and answer it.
Alli: I would love to be asked, as a White woman, why I am interested in writing Black and Afro-Puerto Rican protagonists, and I would love for Asha to be asked why she is interested in writing books that have White and often Jewish main characters. In an entertainment era when it seems our culture has ruled that you can only write what you are and what you know, I would be interested in engaging in real dialogue around this subject. I am going to leave it at that, and maybe a reader here will come to one of our in -person events and ask exactly this because they are curious to hear our answers!
Asha: I would like someone to ask how my loved ones feel about my writing. I often imagine my father, who passed away a decade ago, would have been my biggest cheerleader as each novel was released. Making my friends and family proud – including Alli’s family who through this partnership have become family to me – is a feeling I can barely describe but one I continue to chase.
Thanks for having us!
We hope you all enjoy BOSS LADY.
Cheers,
Alli and Asha
Thank you so much for joining us today!! Reader’s here’s a quick look at BOSS LADY:
Antonia “Toni” Arroyo’s protective mother has outdated notions for her daughter’s life: employ her natural beauty and marry young. But Toni has wholly different aspirations.
A promising inventor and budding entrepreneur, she fights to keep her passions alive as a financially strapped mother of twins with a job in airport transportation services that has her going in circles. One treasured frequent passenger is elderly traveler Sylvia Eisenberg, Toni’s sage but unofficial adviser and cheerleader. When Toni meets Sylvia’s grandson, Ash, a striking venture capitalist, luck just might bend her way.
With a game-changing new business endeavor in development, Toni hustles an opportunity to pitch her idea on TV’s Innovation Nation. Toni’s unexpected challenger? Her very own recently resurfaced, self-aggrandizing not-quite-ex-husband. As Toni’s interrupted past collides with her tenuous future, she is more determined than ever to follow through on her delayed dreams. Toni’s been clinging to “maybe” for so long—it’s finally time for “absolutely.”
