Come Fly with Me by Camille Di Maio

In this episode of Historical Happy Hour, bestselling author Jane Healey welcomes fellow novelist Camille Di Maio to discuss her new release, Come Fly With Me—a richly researched and heartfelt novel set in the glamorous world of 1960s Pan Am stewardesses. Di Maio shares the serendipitous origin of the book, penned partly on a liquor store bag in Tahiti, and describes her immersive journey into the world of the World Wings International alumnae. From training regimens and rigid stewardess rules to tales of Sophia Loren’s elegance in-flight, Camille dives into the fascinating lives of mid-20th-century women with a dual-timeline narrative that blends friendship, reinvention, and mystery. Aspiring writers will also appreciate her insights on writing without outlines, editing, and getting published with humility and grit.

Transcript

Jane: 0:02

Welcome to Historical Happy Hour, the podcast that explores new and exciting historical fiction. I'm your host, Jane Healey, and in today's episode, we welcome my friend, bestselling author, Camille de Mayo, to discuss her latest novel, come Fly With Me, which I never get it like right in front of the camera, which has received rave reviews and was a Zibi Owens most anticipated novel for 2025. Welcome, Camille, and congratulations on your latest. Thank you Jane. Thanks for having me. And, um, so I'm gonna dive in quick bio and then we will dive into questions. I probably have too many. Camille de Mayo is the bestselling author of eight books and is on the Romance Writers of America Honor Roll. She loves to tell stories of women in the mid 20th century as they emerge. She new opportunities, she lives in coastal Virginia. Has four kids, a husband and a dog who never leaves her side. I have one of those as well. Right next. Um, come fly with me. Tell me how you came up with the premise for this delightful novel and what inspired you to write it.

Camille: 1:02

Well that one's a little different than my re the rest of them because my previous books are almost always based on a place I've visited or something really solid. Comply with me was really, uh, an organic co culmination of a lot of my loves. I love aviation. I have a lot of pilots in my family. I love to travel. Um, I love Frank Sinatra, so. Something that's been brewing, whether I was conscious of it or not, but the moment that I knew it was the time to do it was in February, 2020. I was on the island of Morre, which is next to Tahiti, and I saw the coconuts bobbing in the water, children playing in the water, and I just knew I had my prologue, I had my beginning. What I did not have was a pen and paper and or a phone or anything to take notes with. So I had just bought a bottle of Lychee Laur and pulled out the paper bag. I borrowed a pen from somebody and I wrote the prologue on the bag, including the folds and everything. And so the prologue now is almost word for word what that was. And once I kind of found my group with that, went on from there to do the research and all the things we do.

Jane: 2:04

So Cool. So impressive. I, speaking of your research, I love to talk research and I loved your notes at the end. This book, the whole book is dedicated to the World Wings family. Talk about World Wings International and who they are and your extensive research for this story.

Camille: 2:23

Oh yeah. This would not be possible without the World Wings Lady. So once I knew that I was going to write this. Book, I just, you know, set out to find some real PanAm stewardesses and just through an internet search found World Wings, which is a, a philanthropic group of about 2000 of them worldwide. And, uh, they're, they're highly organized wonderful ladies. And so I felt like I had a pretty good writing resume and I thought I'd reach out to them and be. Warmly received and it was kind not, not that I was not warmly received, but they are a very tight group. They care about their legacy very much, and they protect it, which I'm very glad of. So they actually vetted me by reading all my previous books and when they. Confirmed that I, as they called it, my writing is clean and classy and not a mattress romp like they've been approached before. They threw open the doors for me. Um, they call me part of the PanAm family now, and now they've said that this book carries their legacy into the next generation. So they have wholly embraced me and the book, given me a grant to go do research in Miami and gave me lots of fantastic oral histories with women who are now in their eighties and nineties who were stewardesses in the sixties. So tons of what's in the book is oral history, which is my favorite. What's better than that?

Jane: 3:37

Yeah, those original sources are, are amazing. That's really interesting that they vetted you in that way. I didn't realize that. I

Camille: 3:43

guess that's crazy. I'm the only fiction writer they've let in. They said that they've had a lot of people approach with what they thought stewardesses in the sixties were, and they said that was absolutely not the case for PanAm at least. So, um, yeah, they liked that I was going to really doggedly honor their legacy and, and, and their vibe.

Jane: 4:02

Love that. Um, so tell me about some of these stories. That they shared because you said that they shared some about celebrities that you cannot share. Mm-hmm. But what, were there any that really surprised you? Were there any that you wanted to put in the book but you couldn't fit it in? Like, talk to me about that.

Camille: 4:21

I put it, I, there's not too many details that I left out. There were probably some technical things like how to bid for certain routes, and I, I found that interesting, but I think it would've weighed the, the book down a little bit. So I, I didn't get into some of the technical details. That I could have gotten into. I did focus a lot on the, the, uh, training. I found the training to be amazing. You know, there's a scene in the book where they're learning, uh, water training. So they're in a pool, in a motel pool in Miami that was all real. And they've got this giant inflatable that's practically drowning them. The galley kitchens, I mean, their galleys were no bigger than they are today, and yet they were doing beef to order beef Wellington. Eggs to order cheese trays. It wa you know, full cocktails in the same space they have today, if not less those were the details. I found fun. I'll say a good celebrity story, like they told me lots of juicy stuff that I made the choice to not throw that in there. But a really good one was that universally they said if Sophia Loren was on your flight. They loved having her on the flight. Oh, nice. She said that she was so classy. Her kids were well-behaved. There were definitely some celebrities where that was not the case. But, uh, Sophia Lauren for the win.

Jane: 5:32

Oh, I love her. I'm happy to hear that. That's good. I know you love to travel and we were just talking about traveling before we got on and you started writing this book in French Polynesia. Have you visited most of the destinations in the novel?

Camille: 5:45

I've been to all but two of the destination. So I've not been to Mexico and I've not been to Hong Kong. My parents have been to Hong Kong, so I drew a lot from their stories and, uh, and their pictures. But, um, I have been everywhere else.

Jane: 5:57

Yeah.

Camille: 5:57

Excellent.

Jane: 5:58

Talk about in terms of research through the selection process for Pan Am stewardesses, I didn't really, I didn't understand like what a prestigious role it was. You, you, I mean, one, they only choose one out of 50. Talk about that whole process.

Camille: 6:13

Yeah, and one out of 50 was one of the most generous times. There were moments in time where it was like one out of 500, uh, because it was really that I almost thought it would be unbelievable if I put that part in the book. So I, I leaned into even one, one in 50 was already pretty prestigious. Uh, but yeah, they were looking for college educated women who had a foreign lang, a second foreign language that they could speak fluently. And then, you know, just sort of the intangibles, the, you know, just what. What she brought to it. They were very good at, at pulling out that she would be good at customer service and poise and everything, but not just, you know, one thing I learned in doing this that they were really on the lookout for, even in the, um, in the interview process, was that she was going to have to not just do great customer service, but safety. Safety was a huge, huge, huge factor of the training. So she had to be physically skilled to be able to do some of these. Things she had to be technically skilled. Like they literally had to know almost as much about the airplane as the pilots because this was a day and age when people were travel on an airplane was brand new to people. So if they heard a funny sound or had some turbulence, the stewardesses were the only point of contact with the passengers and they had to know the science, the weather the. All the stuff. So in the interview process, they were looking for women who could cover all of that. So I can imagine.

Jane: 7:31

Yeah. And who were smart. I had to memorize all the roots, like things like that, that I, you wouldn't even think of. That's crazy.

Camille: 7:37

Yeah, I know.

Jane: 7:39

Um, and then once they made it through. Like they, they had all these strict rules that they had to adhere to too, to talk about some of those, because I didn't know about, I didn't know about any of this. That's why I love, I love historical fiction teaches you. Oh, no.

Camille: 7:51

Yeah. Well, you couldn't be, some things were semi practical. You couldn't be past a certain height, a certain weight. You know, back then there had to be some more of those considerations. It wasn't all for the look. There were some, you know, technical reasons for those things. Um, they had to wear girdles. They would be weighed if they were even an ounce over what the limit was at any given time. They could not go on that flight. If that happened several times, they could be. Fired, uh, they couldn't be married at the time that I'm writing it, which was kind of the spark for where I took the book in the first place. A woman coming on who is married and has to look over her shoulder to make sure Pan Am never finds out. So that just scratches the surface of, of how rigid and strict it was. But it's why they were Pan Am It's why they are the best of the best of the best.

Jane: 8:34

Yeah. Yeah. So interesting. I wanna talk about the two characters at the center or of the book you. Your books always have strong female characters. In this case, Beverly, who comes from a upper class kind of stifling background, and Judy, who is fleeing a toxic marriage, how did you come up with these two characters? Are they based directly on. Any direct, like are they composites or are they based directly on any of the Pan-Am stewardesses you learned about? How did you, what's your character development like for these two?

Camille: 9:04

They weren't based on any of the stewardesses that I met specifically, but I was really intrigued by that idea that you couldn't be married and it could, it was only a few years after this that that changed, but in this time period you couldn't. So that was my jumping off point of having a character who was married, but I didn't want to write something where she was just, snuffing out her marriage to go do something. I really needed there to be a, a, a good motivating reason. And so she was, I have her married somebody who's very, uh, narcissistic and she realizes she needs to get out of that. And then I thought, well, for her friend, I want her friend to be in a situation that is completely opposite. So whereas Judy's married, living in small town, Pennsylvania. I went the other extreme, and Beverly is living in, you know, a penthouse on Park Avenue in New York, but she is also caged in her own way. And so even though they come from these completely different worlds, they are both running from something and really running toward themselves, and that ends up becoming the basis for their friendship.

Jane: 10:00

Cool. And this book is told in ADU dual timeline where it goes back in, you know, present day and back in time. And did you, was that always the plan in terms of structure? I'm always interested in how people decide to structure

Camille: 10:13

cancer. I have no plan. I'm really kind of a cancer to the extreme, so, I'm sure all your listeners know that's riding by the seat of your pants. So as I sat there on the shores of Moray, that's where just that prologue came to me, which ended up being. Modern day with somebody looking backwards, which is where just sort of the dual timeline developed. But I liked doing the mystery behind it. So the prologue opens with one woman is spreading the ashes of somebody. And so you don't really find out who that woman is. We get these touch points and more array throughout the book, but you don't find out until about halfway through the book where you feel pretty confirmed about who it is that's spreading, whose ashes. So there's like an element of mystery and tension there that like you pull through.

Jane: 10:56

Yes. Which is cool. And I

Camille: 10:57

didn't carry it all the way to the end of the book because it, it would've been, kind of like a corny stretch to keep trying to make it a mystery, but just enough, just enough to have Yeah. Yeah. A mystery element.

Jane: 11:08

So you, um, you are already like, touched on my next question, which is like plotting verse paning. So you were, uh, you're, you don't plot at all. You don't like plan out anything. Just really

Camille: 11:19

No, no. I approach my books the way that I read. You know, I read like a hundred books a year, and when I'm reading, I don't know what happens next. So when I'm writing, I don't know what happens next. So I write it as if I'm my own reader, if that makes sense.

Jane: 11:31

So I, and that's crazy. Like I, so you just sit down and you're just like, this is, we'll see how, where this goes today, like what goes. Yeah, I'm sorry. So talk about like your, your re your, like when you're on a writing schedule, like what do you do? Like you sit down and you like, do you review what you did, did the day before or a couple days before? Like, talk about all that.'cause I'm fascinated with people who don't plot things out, so I just wanna, I wanna try to understand Camille.

Camille: 11:59

So, no, I, I try, when I have a, any given writing session, I try at least to get to the end of a chapter so that I've completed an idea. But I, for the most part, don't have any idea where the next chapter will go. And so the next time I'm sitting down to write that chapter, which is rarely the next day, I mean, for me, I've got four kids and you know, while they're starting to grow and grown and flown. But in general in my writing, the life is just too busy to do it every day. So by the time I'm. Sitting down for the next chapter a couple weeks from now, I do kind of go refresh to where I was, but it also gives me like a new spark of creativity. And it is, it's a very weird way for a historical fiction writer to write. I totally acknowledge that because it makes sense that we should have all sorts of research on hand beforehand. Um, but I kind of do it as I go. I see. What do I need to get to the next step? I'll go research that.

Jane: 12:48

Oh, that was my other question. That was my follow on question. So you kind of, you research as you go along, you don't kind of have a base of research, but you must have like some vague idea but not really like a, a base of research when you start. Is that right?

Camille: 13:00

I have enough to get me started to kind of know that, where I want to develop it basically with characters, the basic idea of what's going to happen. So I do enough research to get to that point. Yeah. I like. I like it that way because I think I would be, if I did it the other way, if I personally researched a whole bunch in advance, I think I would be guilty of the info dump because I would nerd out on it, and then I would be like, this needs to go in the book. So I'm kind of protecting myself and my reader from the info dump of just getting what I need when I need it

Jane: 13:28

and, and explained. I'm sure everyone, most people know, like, but what's the, what do you info dump? Meaning like you put all the. A ton of facts upfront or like in the middle of a prose. Right? Like that, you know, explain what you mean by that in case readers, listeners don't know.

Camille: 13:43

Oh, sure. Well, just whenever if we are fascinated enough by a topic to go spend a year or two writing a book like that, we, it means that we are. For lack of a better word, we're ready to nerd out on it because we're ready to spend that much time on it. And so we will find out lots of things about our subject matter that in the end you have to be discerning and say, okay this will kind of weigh it down. This would be, it's interesting to me, but it's going to slow the plot down. I'm not writing nonfiction, so just for myself, I think that my process, if I overly researched from the get go, I think I would. Find a little too much that I would wanna just pour in there that might not keep the story going. So by doing it the way I do it, which is just chapter by chapter and not really with a plan, it keeps me focused on the story itself and then I get to, to bring in the historical accuracy as needed. Interesting.

Jane: 14:34

I have, I do have some more questions for you, but remember if you have questions for Camille, put them in the chat or the q and a and we'll take'em after. What do you find the most challenging aspect about the writing process and what's the pro part of the process you most enjoy?

Camille: 14:49

Um, weirdly, I love the editing. The writing itself, just, you know, getting to the end feels such, like, such a herculean task sometimes, and I have made lots of peace with the fact that a first draft is just really. So awful in so many cases. But the editing, it's like one of those, you know, like when you have a teacher that's really tough, but you really realize you love them. That's how I feel about editing. It's really super tough. But I absolutely love seeing the transformation that happens in the editing process. Um, I'm a fairly analytical person, so I get to like start to figure out what's working and not working, and I enjoy that process.

Jane: 15:28

Yeah, I do too. I like that too. I, the first draft is, is like. I always say it's like blood from a stone. It's so hard to get to the end, but then like when you can make it better and other people can help you make it better, like yeah. I love that.

Camille: 15:41

Yeah.

Jane: 15:42

Two part question for aspiring writers out there. What is your advice about writing and what is your advice about getting published?

Camille: 15:51

Uh, my advice about, uh, writing is that I think the two most important traits of a writer are perseverance and humility. The perseverance in that you need to persevere, even just to write the book in the first place, and then all the many, many things that come along afterwards, including rejection, agent rejection, and so forth. So persevering through all that is important and I think humility is really important because at a certain point, this is not your art anymore, it's a product. It's your product, it's also your agent's product. It's your editor's project, your publisher's pro product. And so you have to have the humility to listen to these other wise voices who have some legitimate input on it. And I, I had a relative one time who had, uh, who was. Um, a comic he did comic strips and he got picked up by a big syndicate, but then refused to do any editing on it and lost his contract. And I witnessed that as a child, not realizing how impactful that would be to me. Um, but he didn't wanna compromise his art and so. As I got into the creative field, I realized there's a certain point where it's just not your art anymore. So there's that. And then, um, the publishing, uh, besides just being persistent, I would say, um, be a giver. I think that what's beautiful in this community that I didn't ex uh, expect is that it is such an amazing writing community, and so I prefer to talk about other people's books even more than my own. I love to give back just as you're doing right now, so be ready to be a giver.

Jane: 17:14

Yeah, I think that's so true that was one of the. Best surprises about the writing life is other authors are so wonderful and supportive like you. And, um, and that's, yeah, I love that part about, about it and that's all really good advice. By the way, you have some super fans on here, Christine Mo and Sharon person, I know you know these names. Lisa Hudson saying Such wonderful Darlene Govi wonderful things about you and your book. So I just wanted, thank you. I glasses on. So I'm gonna take your, yeah, I'll send you the comments after. So talk, talk about your own, like, you know, this is your eighth, right? Is that correct? Yes. Yeah. Talk about your, like, writer's origin story. How you, you know, wrote your first novel and how you got that published. Like, I'm, I'm always interested like,'cause I think that. It takes time. It all takes time, like learning the craft and getting the first deal. So talk a little bit about your specific story.

Camille: 18:07

Mine it, the inspiration was when I was 12 and I was bullied on, you know, bullied at school. So I spent. Playground time at, at the library instead. And that's what made me wanna be a writer. But it wasn't until I was in my mid thirties and I had four kids. I, I thought it would be someday, like after the kids were grown. And then, uh, my kids wanted to read the Twilight series and I thought they were a little young, but I thought, I'm gonna. I'm gonna check this out, and I read the Twilight series. And in doing so and being a little bit captivated by them, I learned that the author had written them while she was at swim team practice with her three kids. And a light bulb went on for me. I thought, oh my gosh, we do swim team. I can do that too. So as soon as just her doing that opened up, like the permission in my brain that I could do this. I opened myself up to creative ideas. And so the spark of the first book was that I was driving around in my minivan with the four kids doing errands, and the song Eleanor Rigby came on and I love The Beatles. And it just dawned on me like, what if Father McKenzie and Eleanor Rigby knew each other? What if they had a history and that. Created the first book, which I wrote in six weeks, and thought, I thought, oh, I, I, you know, I stayed up late drinking Dr. Pepper, like a good Texan girl at the time. Um, and had a, had a really bad first draft six weeks later. But I didn't know it was bad. I thought, I'll get an agent, I'll get a publisher, I'll get a movie deal. And four years later I got the agent, the publisher. I

Jane: 19:30

understand

Camille: 19:31

that many drafts later.

Jane: 19:33

Yeah, I know, I understand that all too well.'cause my first. But my first book, I was like, I'm ready. I'm ready to send this out. It's perfect. And then like it took a few years before it was like

Camille: 19:43

good enough, so yeah, it's definitely years. I don't know anybody who's doing well in this business, who didn't take years with their first one.

Jane: 19:52

Totally agree. And I, it's funny you mentioned, I remember reading that about Stephanie Meyers, the author of Twilight, and I remember reading those books'cause I'd given them to my niece thinking, oh whatever, vampires. And they're like compulsively readable. I'm not a vampire person, I'm not like a Romans person. But I was like, there's something, you know, and it's God bless her. Like there's compulsive, like you have to know what happens next. So I know. Guilty pleasure. So good. So what, what, why historical fiction? What drew you to historical fiction specifically?

Camille: 20:24

Well, this is how little I knew about writing. I'd never even taken a writing class. Um, when I did the Eleanor Rigby book and I wanted to set it in the 1930s so that by the time they were older, it was in the sixties when the song came out. So I started to research, you know, well, if they were in Liverpool, what would've been happening in the late thirties? Oh, that was World War ii. So I just. I guessed. I just naturally understood that I had to research that I couldn't have even told you, even at that time that I was writing a historical fiction book. I literally didn't realize it was a genre. And then once I realized it was a genre, I went back and looked at everything I've ever read my whole life. And I went, oh, I've been a historical fiction fan this whole time. I just didn't put it together that it was a genre. So that is how new I was to it when I started. So, but I did fall in love with the research.

Jane: 21:13

I love the research too. Have you ever considered writing outside of historical? Are you sticking with historical, you think?

Camille: 21:19

I have three in the works that are contemporary right now, oh, okay. I actually am, uh, I do have two, um, historical ideas we're about to pitch, but in the meantime through some, some of my own ideas and a couple co-writing things, I have some contemporaries. In various stages, so, very cool. Do you wanna talk about what I'm not That's easy. It's never easy to write a book, but I do have to say it's a little bit like when you're walking with weights and then you take the weights off. Not having the research aspect is a little bit like that. See, that's the

Jane: 21:48

thing I think about. I'm like, oh, wouldn't it be so nice if I didn't have to deal with like, all the details and all the things you have to get right.'cause you know, you, you'll hear about it from readers if you don't. Yeah. I can you talk about the contemporary or are you not ready to talk about them yet?

Camille: 22:03

Yeah. One is essentially done. It is, um, it is co-written with a friend of mine, uh, who's a producer and plans to make it into a movie. So she wrote the script and I wrote the book. But when it comes out and when it gets announced will be kind of based on her, um, her timeline with that. And the second one is we're about a third of the way through. It's co-written with a PanAm. Stewardess has nothing to do with PanAm. It's actually about something in her own life. Women's health advocacy and, and a medical malpractice that happened in her life. And I just made the offhand comment that she should, uh, fictionalize it if she wanted to. You know, it was a particular way to tell her story. And so she knew me as a fiction author, so we're co-writing it together. And then the third one is just a romcom idea. So when I'm writing historical fiction, I can't read it at the same time, so I tend to go to romcoms. Yeah. And I've been reading enough romcoms lately that I was like. I think I could do that. And so I had an idea that I fell in love with that enemies still leverage trope and uh, I'm having a lot of fun with it. Nice.

Jane: 23:03

What's your favorite? Recent, because I, I don't read a lot of rom-coms, but lately just to like take, like you said, take a break from historical fiction. I've been reading a few. What's your favorite one of late like that you love of

Camille: 23:13

late, uh, Catherine Center. She's an autobi for me. She just came out with a new one last week called the Love Haters and I love them because they are rom-coms, but there's always something just deeper and. A little quirkier than you would think to find, so you, you feel like you're eating some or you're reading something a little bit meaty at the same time. And I enjoy that.

Jane: 23:33

Yeah. I, I haven't read for her, but I've heard amazing things. I just finished on Audible. Um. Part of your world by Abby Jimenez.

Camille: 23:40

Yeah, I liked that. I just, that was

Jane: 23:42

adorable.

Camille: 23:43

Yeah she's right up there with Catherine Center for me.

Jane: 23:45

Yeah. Yeah. So, so cute. Couple more questions from me. I know you have a newsletter that readers can subscribe to. What are the other best ways for readers to stay in touch with you?

Camille: 23:57

So, I'm, uh, I'm very active on Instagram and TikTok. I'm not super active on my newsletter, maybe three times a year, however, going back to all the travel I have done that's in Come Fly with Me. I've traveled to many more places that aren't in the book. So I'm going to start doing some freebie chapters of just Judy and Beverly at a particular destination, and I'm gonna do that via my newsletter. So if anybody, I, I don't have it planned yet, but at, at least by the end of the year, I'll have one at least. But I think throughout time, I just, anytime I travel, I might do a Judy and Beverly story. Oh, what a great idea. That's very cool.

Jane: 24:30

I'm guessing that Come Fly With Me was always the title. Yes. Was that always the title? I mean,

Camille: 24:34

it's So Perfect. Was a few books that I knew the title of from the beginning.

Jane: 24:37

Yeah. Titles are hard, but I'm like, this one probably wasn't that hard. Yeah. And then, um, did you ha the cover is perfect the font, the color, like colors, like, did you have a say in the cover design or

Camille: 24:51

how'd that go? Oh, yeah, that was a story. I, I will just say. I will say sometimes the artists are not historical fiction minded people, and so I'll just say the first rounds of stuff we got back, had some inaccuracies, including a red uniform that, um, my editor and I had to fight back quite hard on to make sure it was accurate. Then they gave me a prop plane, then they gave me a modern day. So getting to the right era, the right colors and so forth, was a process. And my editor was absolutely my advocate on that. But what they came up with the end. I'm so happy with it. Oh yeah. It's so great. Yeah, I bet the, um, the ladies all like it too, right? They're very, very happy with it. But I, I like to be, I, I am not a raise a stink kind of person. And this was, um, and I, and I'm known for that pretty well, thankfully. And so I raised a stink and that kind of got some attention because I don't usually do that. Oh yeah. No, it's

Jane: 25:42

great. Okay. Couple questions from the audience here. Uh, will the books be available in large print? I'm sure many would like this option from an anonymous,

Camille: 25:52

uh oh. That's just up to the publisher. I don't think our publisher tends to do much large print, unfortunately, but that's really out of our hands.

Jane: 26:00

Yeah. Joan Barlow asked, do you know how much they made per hour? The Stewart Canon,

Camille: 26:06

um, I don't remember the exact amount they paid, made per hour, but even up until literally about a month ago, this is how recent this change is. Stewardess were paid from the closing of the door on the plane to the opening of the door. So they were not paid for. Saying hello, waving you in, welcoming you to the plane, nor were they, nor at the end when the door was open. So it was door to door literally. And that just changed, like American Airlines about a month ago started paying their flight attendants for, for more than that. So I don't remember what the amount was, but that was really, really something quite unfair in the industry That is only now getting changed. Crazy. Yeah, that's, that is crazy. Yeah.

Jane: 26:48

Uh, Marsha Ding asks, I'm watching Netflix Younger are. Is that show accurate about the publishing world? I haven't really watched much of that, have you?

Camille: 26:58

I haven't watched it either, so yeah, no, I

Jane: 27:00

have friends who have, who love the show, but I can't think of anyone in the publishing world that's watched it really. So I know that like my friend, like spent the whole weekend like binging seven seasons or something. So I know it's like a really good

Camille: 27:14

show. But

Jane: 27:15

yeah. Sure.

Camille: 27:17

I'll say movies often, uh, radically get wrong. What it's like to be a writer, especially a writer in New York where they have this super cute apartment with a bay window and a brownstone, and yet they write. Yes. I don't know many writers who are gonna be able to write and afford that. So that's always a very Nancy Meyers of them.

Jane: 27:35

Right, exactly. Let's see. Oh, Christine asks, I did not know you were a Texas girl. Will you

Camille: 27:42

tour Central Texas at all? I'm a fourth generation San Antonio, and I was in San Antonio in March on book tour, so I don't have any more plans this year, but I think I'm gonna come out in spring again and would like to at least make it to San Antonio and Dallas, maybe Waco. Nice. Stay tuned. Yeah.

Jane: 27:59

I think that is all the questions we've got. Camille, this was delightful. It was so good to see you. Hopefully we'll see each other in person sometime this year. I hope so. Yeah. Thank you for coming on. Thank you everyone. So, um, that's a wrap for tonight. I have Serena Burdick on June 24th. Coming to talk about her latest novel, A Promise to Arlet. You can register for the live event@janehealey.com. And a reminder that my novel, the Women of Arlington Hall, releases on August 1st, but is available for pre-order. Now. Again, come fly with me, Camille de Mayo, amazing reviews. Thank you again, Camille and um, everyone have a great night. All right, you too. Take care. Bye-bye.