The True Story Behind A Psychological Thriller Debut

Welcome And Guest Introduction

SPEAKER_05 0:01

Hey, hey, you are watching and listening to Lex Between the Lines, where I am your host, Lex, and I am going to try my best to stay between the lines today. I am going to let my guest introduce herself and the book that we will be talking about today.

SPEAKER_02 0:19

Hi everyone. My name is Gilletta Shavers, and I'm a thriller author. And we will be talking about my book. This is my debut novel. Um, well, debut novel. Um, it's the anniversary of my debut novel, two-year anniversary, and it's called The Inheritance of Amaya Montgomery. And Lexi, Lex, thank you so much for having me on your show.

SPEAKER_05 0:47

I thank you for joining me. Let me say, I did not know that this was your debut. You didn't? I did not. You mean to tell me this is what you came out with.

SPEAKER_02 1:00

This is what I came out with two years ago. The craziestness never stops. It just it just keeps going and going and going. I swear, because what?

SPEAKER_05 1:12

Hold on, because you know, I was introduced with Joe Evil, and so I know to know that this is what you came out with first. How do we come up? First of all, how did we come up with this story? Because I'm gonna tell you, and I had started reading it, and then I um got the audio for it, and that was a totally different experience. Like, I recommend that this is one of the books that you can't read, you have to listen to it, you have to you have to listen to it on audio.

SPEAKER_02 1:53

Yeah, and you know what? I'm just gonna be honest. I I wanna be honest. I love that you said this is a book that you really can't read when you um listen to it on audio, first of all, because J.R.

Why The Audiobook Hits Hard

SPEAKER_02 2:05

Mason did an excellent job with the production.

SPEAKER_03 2:08

It's not a good thing. Uh oh, your sound. Can you hear me, Jill?

unknown 2:14

I'm always messing up.

SPEAKER_03 2:17

Yep. Look at technology. And we can't we can't hear it at all now.

SPEAKER_05 2:46

I can hear you, but his he's breaking out the phone too.

unknown 2:53

Okay, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 2:59

Now I just want to cut up on this. Uh-oh.

SPEAKER_05 3:10

Okay, can you hear me now? I can hear you. Okay, I it's pr it's good now.

SPEAKER_02 3:20

Okay, all right. I I don't remember why I stopped, um, but I would just say the audio uh book is a production and since this was my debut novel, my writing has improved, you know, for author's standard since the debut novel. So um I always tell people, I just really push the audio book because the audio book it it tells the story and you can feel the story. You ask, how did I come up with it?

Trauma, Dementia, And Writing To Heal

SPEAKER_02 3:56

So my I always say my biological mother, and people think that's weird because I have two mothers. I have a biological mother, and then I have a bonus mother who I do not call my bonus mother, I call her my mother. So that's how I distinguish my biological mother and my mother. Okay, my biological mother, um, okay, so Amaya is me without the inheritance, okay? Okay, so Amaya has anxiety. My anxiety is not to the level of Amaya's, not at all, but I have anxiety. And uh my second husband, he did, he attempted to gaslight me, but I didn't take it like Amaya did. Well, I mean, we were like busting heads, you know. Not fighting busting heads, I probably shouldn't have done that. But I was gonna say, hold on now. But I had to exaggerate, you know, the book. But my mother, my birth mother, biological mother, has dementia. And she wasn't the best mother to me, I would say. And she was a professional woman. Um, in the book, a Maya's mother is on drugs, and her daddy is on drugs, but my mother and father were never on drugs. Um, so uh again, that's all exaggerated. But my mother was very uh emotionally abusive to me. And my mother even told me that she did not want me, and my grandparents raised me. So I was a little awkward girl. Um, I went to Christian schools, and so I was, you know, didn't really know about what really went on in the world. So when I got older, I was learning. I had like a big wake-up call because I was sheltered, you know, all my life. And uh when my mother got dementia, I'm the one that had to take care of her, not the daughter she kept, my sister. It was me. And so she didn't live with me because the dementia had advanced so bad because I was trying to get her help, but she was refusing it. And finally um, we were able to get her the help she needed and get her place where she needed to place, replaced. But it was really difficult for me because it was bringing back all of the childhood trauma that I had. I did start therapy. And um, and after therapy, I decided to write a book because I'm a mental health therapist myself. And I tell my clients to write themselves a happy ending. So I decided to combine, you know, what I was dealing with with my mom. And I will say this the um mother and daughter did have a happy ending in the book. But her her and a husband, you have to read and see. But I also, since I was writing, you know, loosely based on me, I put my second ex-husband in here. But I'm not gonna talk too bad about him because he was recently murdered in July. So um, you know, so I just won't say too much more about him out of respect, you know, since he's not, you know, with us anymore. But he was a horrible husband. And he was very much similar to Quentin in here. So yeah, I wrote this book. It was therapy for me. Yeah. And I was able to forgive my mom by the end of the book. Um, I was able to like truly forgive my mom because she's never going to be able to say, Gillette, I'm sorry for everything that I did to you. And you know that hurts. So yeah, but I have my other mom, man. And she's actually right over there. So I would have her come say hi, but I don't think so. She's not dressed, she won't come. That's all right, mama. How you doing? She said, but at least can you come here and not get on the camera? Cause the host said, Hi, mama, how you doing? Can you come over and just not get on the camera? You don't have to get on the camera. She said hi.

SPEAKER_05 8:08

She's afraid I'm gonna put on camera. That's okay. Look, she spoke to us. That's how we good.

SPEAKER_02 8:14

That's right.

Publishing A Book That Started As Therapy

SPEAKER_05 8:18

What was the hardest part of writing this?

SPEAKER_02 8:21

Everything. Everything. I mean, you asked, it was emotion. I can't pick one hardest part. I mean, it's very it was like I said, it was therapeutic. I I mean, I wasn't really planning on publishing the book, but then I put all this crazy stuff in here because I love thrillers, put all this crazy stuff in here. I'm like, you know, I'm gonna publish this book. It was really just for me.

SPEAKER_05 8:45

Wait, so when you wrote this, you didn't have any intention of publishing it?

SPEAKER_02 8:50

I've been writing all my life. Yes. I think we talked on the interview before. I started writing when I was a little girl because I'm 55. And when I was younger, we only had child of four, seven, eleven, and two. So it wasn't nothing on TV for me to watch. So I was reading, I was writing stories, you know, the way I want. I started like my biological father, whom I've never met. I wrote stories about him, you know, and things like that. So yeah, I've been writing all my life.

SPEAKER_05 9:21

What made you say I'm gonna, because I know you say you have been writing a while, but what made you say I'm gonna put like this is the book, this is this is it right here. This is gonna be my debut. How did you choose this one to debut to come out with?

SPEAKER_02 9:34

I have two friends. I have two friends. Um her name, I guess I won't say their last name, but Brooke and Didi. And they encouraged me to do so. They encouraged me. So yeah. So, but yeah, I had to write the crazy end too, though. Honey, Amaya. Let me ask you this, Lex.

The Amaya Problem And Reader Reactions

SPEAKER_02 10:03

Let me ask you this. What did you think about Amaya? Because when I first wrote Amaya, I mean when I first decided to publish Amaya, I thought people would really feel for Amaya, but nobody likes Amaya.

SPEAKER_05 10:25

I thought they would feel for her. I wanted to shake her. I wanted to shake her so bad because I was like, sweetheart. There were so many different signs. There were so many different signs, like even the way he was talking to her at different points. Um, like when he threw the glass and stuff at her, like, girl, if you don't throw it back, I was just like, oh my god, Amaya, like, where is your and even the what really I think what made me upset with her was you were going to therapy. You were going to therapy. Were you not explaining your marriage to the therapist? Like, were y'all not talking about your home life? What were y'all up in there talking about? Because why are you still this timid? She wasn't giving you no encouragement.

SPEAKER_02 11:15

Yeah. I think the therapist only was helping her with um her mother and her father and her childhood trauma. I think Amaya left her. Um, first of all, I think Amaya really didn't realize she was abused. I think she was oblivious to it. So her marriage, I guess, was good to her, you know. So it was no reason to talk about it to her therapist.

unknown 11:45

Oh goodness.

SPEAKER_05 11:46

I did you know what? I did hear her say that he was the only one that she was with, and like when he kind of threw it in her face, she was like awkward and nobody really talked to her. So I can see that, and he was this little handsome, but I was just like, Oh my god, openly like and then Josh, her cousin and best friend. I said at first I had to go back because I said, Wait, is this the best friend that she was talking about? Like, is this a best friend that she was? And then when he was talking to Quentin, I said, I think I misread something. Like, I think I missed something, so I had to go back, and when I found out that they were one in the same, you have got to be kidding me.

SPEAKER_02 12:33

But Josh and oh, oh, the best friend and the cousin are one in the same because Josh and Quentin are one in the same, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 12:39

The best friend and the cousin because they have the same name, and then when I realized, like, no, they're worth the same person, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:48

Yeah, that's crazy toward the end, huh?

SPEAKER_05 12:52

That's what I said. Now, look at that. You did all of it, and had you just been a good cousin and a good friend, calm with something else, it is, and now look, you don't have nobody not not, I mean, not a soul. You and him both in the same situation.

SPEAKER_02 13:15

That's right, a situation that they both deserved, and I was that they both deserved Quentin.

SPEAKER_05 13:23

You literally, all you had to do was just be you just you you were just too greedy. Like all you had to do was just leave it up, just he was a womanizer, he was a psychopath, and just greedy.

SPEAKER_02 13:40

And that poor girl just loved that man with her stupid tail, just loved him. My friend said she wanted to jump through the book, choke her, and then shake some sense into her.

SPEAKER_05 13:54

And then I said, these graphics, how like it was just so many times where I was just like, You are we are you are you serious right now? We can't tell that him try oh my god.

SPEAKER_02 14:09

I actually have a little section I want to

Inheritance Plot And Gaslighting Tactics

SPEAKER_02 14:12

read. It's only four paragraphs to just show it, it's it's um, you know, basically, I guess we hadn't told everyone, but the story is about a young lady who's an heiress, and she's rich now, but she's gonna get probably about 80 million dollars uh once she turns 30. And her husband marries her in college, and he's the perfect husband until she's 29. And when she turns 29, he is gaslighting her. Um, he's gaslighting her like on hydraulics gaslighting her. And he's trying to make her go crazy so that he can, you know, control her and control all of the money. And he'll kill anyone that gets in his way. But it's just crazy stuff he's doing to gaslight her. So I just want to read this little part, okay? And it's from um chapter 20, um, Amaya, the voices. And she's had like a stressful day, and she can't wait to go home, get in the shower, spend time with her handsome husband, Quentin. But Quentin has like rigged up things in the house and everything, just to, I mean, really, he's paid someone to rig things up in the house to um make her think she's going crazy. And it's always when no one's around because the things are on timers and everything. So this was this is um excerpt for when she came home and she, you know, she greets her husband, she gets in the shower, and she planned on spending time with him. So um, when she gets in the shower, he goes behind the bed and there's a button that he pushes. So he pushes a button, it's a timer on it, and it the timer is exact. So he gives her, he knows about how much time it is for her to take a shower. So I'm gonna start reading here.

SPEAKER_06 16:16

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 16:16

After stepping out of the shower, Amaya sits on the commode to dry herself off and apply lotion to her body. As she does, she hears wind whistling in her bedroom. Feeling a sense of unease, she stands up and walks toward the closed bathroom door. Gripping the wall for security, with a trembling hand, she opens the door, revealing the connection to her bedroom. Stepping through, a chilling breeze sends shivers down her spine as she steps into her bedroom. She suddenly hears the faint sound of her grandfather's voice. And that's what she's getting the inheritance from her deceased grandparents. It grows louder. Princess, princess, can you hear me, my dear granddaughter? Her heart is pounding in her chest. She stands still, unable to move. Princess, we'll be together soon. She screams, ah. Suddenly the light flickers, casting eerie shadows on the wall. Panic surges through Amaya's veins as she races out of the bedroom. Quinn hears her appearance and screams and rushes upstairs. She leaps into his arms, unable to speak. Her shaking finger points toward the bedroom. He takes her back into the bedroom. The sound of her grandfather is still present in her ears. Princess, no one understands you. Your grandmother and I are the only ones who ever understood you. Leave me alone, please go away, she begs other voices. Why are you screaming? Who are you talking to? asked Quentin. It's my grandfather. Don't you hear him? She asks, with her eyes widened in terror. Your grandfather is dead. Don't you hear him? Your grandfather, your grandparents have been dead for years. And I'm gonna stop there. So he knows he hears those voices because he planted those voices there. And this is mild of what he does to her.

SPEAKER_05 18:24

And I was just like, did she not like the person who installed them must have done it like so freaking good? Because I was just like, you like you couldn't tell that it was voice modulated or anything, like Amaya.

SPEAKER_02 18:39

Yeah, but remember Amaya is vulnerable, gullible, and he's already been working on her, working on her, you know, in the book, Other Little Things. Remember, other little things that he was doing. He had her down her sanity before he, I mean, it graduated, you know. He had her dice down her sanity before he even got to this uh particular event.

SPEAKER_05 19:06

But it was just like Amaya, there was just so many different things that should have been like adding up, like it was too many coincidences, Amaya.

SPEAKER_04 19:15

It was too many.

SPEAKER_02 19:18

And I said, Amaya's loosely based on me. I am not that gullible, I am not that dumb. Let me just put that in there because I don't want people saying, Oh, Amaya is Gillette. No, it's loosely based on me.

SPEAKER_05 19:35

She said, Let me clear that up real quick, loosely. Just a few characteristics.

SPEAKER_00 19:43

Yes, yes, yes.

Bree, Identity, And Fighting Stigma

SPEAKER_01 19:45

Oh man, and Brie. I like Brie. I like Brie. I say Brie. What do you think about Brie?

SPEAKER_05 19:55

Brie was I kind of wanted more of Brie.

SPEAKER_02 20:00

You'll get more of Brie uh in book two.

SPEAKER_05 20:03

Wait a minute, because I didn't know we was getting another book now.

SPEAKER_02 20:08

We will. Um, actually, um, I left room at the end for the additional chapter or bonus chapter, however I put it. Um, if this book, you know, did well enough, I would bring in uh book two, where Amaya, she's gonna be a confident person, but still gonna be a thriller. But um Maya's gonna be confident, but uh oh, I don't want to say too much because people have to read the book, but um Amaya have a better story in the next one, and she she's gonna be actually badass.

SPEAKER_05 20:42

Do we get more of Bree's character, like a breakdown of her and Josh's relationship?

SPEAKER_02 20:50

No, no, you're gonna get the you're gonna get the divorce papers. No, oh my god, no. Brie is going to become a social worker and a therapist and try to uh help young girls and um and just live her life and just live her life because you know she wasn't happy with Josh.

SPEAKER_05 21:16

Will she eventually find love?

SPEAKER_02 21:20

She will, but um it won't be with a man.

SPEAKER_05 21:26

You know, it um it's crazy that you say that because at one point I thought she had a thing for Amaya.

SPEAKER_02 21:33

No, she don't, no, but yeah, but she she will she will find true love, but it will be with a woman.

SPEAKER_05 21:42

I should thought when it um she said she was setting up the birthday party and stuff, and she was like, I've always loved you and stuff. And I was like, is this why you ain't want to be with my cousin?

SPEAKER_02 21:52

You know what? I don't know. Maybe that would be a good twist, but no, they can't be together. We know they can't. Be together because that would be a little trifling now.

SPEAKER_05 22:03

But what she said, I was like, hold on now. Cuz but then we figure out I you know it tells us why she said that and stuff. But if for a little minute, and she was telling her, I was like, Hold on, are we finna say that you had feelings for her? And that was what because did we ever find out why she was gonna end it their senior year?

SPEAKER_02 22:22

Like, um, I thought Josh was gonna end it until she got pregnant. That's what I thought. Yeah, it's been a long time. I mean, I know my own book. Wait a minute now. I thought Josh was gonna end it, but she was pregnant.

SPEAKER_01 22:43

I I so wait a minute.

SPEAKER_05 22:48

Hold on, because I thought I seen where she was gonna end it, and some friends had told him, and then when they got pregnant, he didn't want anybody else. When she got pregnant, he wanted anybody else. You know what?

SPEAKER_02 22:59

That may have been it. This was three years ago when I wrote this book. So, you know what? Well, then that makes it even better, then, because my point of making her a social worker is um, because she will be a therapist, but as a social worker, she's going to understand like diverse populations, and she's gonna understand that it's okay because we're gonna find out that um she is bisexual, um, and she was fighting the feelings, you know, for years, and it's okay for her to be herself. So, with me being a therapist and social worker, I try to like uh debunk the stigma of mental health, uh debunk the stigma of um people who don't understand or dislike um same gender love, um, because you know, one character in the book that Joshua hates is um his brother's wife, who is transgender. So, yeah. So am I right? And that's something, you know, that I really want to do. I want to open, you know, the reader's eyes up to, you know, why can't we just care about everyone? You know, who, you know, it doesn't matter their race, their religion. In this climate, it's hard to say politics, but you know, so yeah.

SPEAKER_05 24:34

Did his brother get a little inherited? Did his brother get anything? Did he get the grandma nearly from anything?

SPEAKER_02 24:42

No, because he wasn't close to Amaya. Josh was always there for Amaya, so no.

SPEAKER_05 24:50

And I feel like he was only there for a certain reason, like he was he wasn't genuinely there.

SPEAKER_02 24:55

He was never genuine, never genuine. And see, at first I was going to have uh Quentin and Josh planning all this, but they were really together, and at the end they were gonna be together. I was gonna do that, but then I changed it.

SPEAKER_05 25:15

You know what? It's crazy you said that because it kind of gave that.

SPEAKER_02 25:20

That's how it started. That's how it started. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_06 25:25

But then I changed it.

SPEAKER_05 25:26

Oh my god. And I said, Who was this woman on the cruise that was watching them, that was watching Josh Nim? Like, and then I was like, Does she know like what they're trying to do? I don't know, like it was just a woman when they were trying to, you know, with the on the cruise ship and stuff, and it was like he felt like this woman was watching him, and I was like, Well, who is this woman? And then he goes me jumping to conclusions like maybe Taylor got money, Tyler got money, because members he said this Taylor is Tyler, not Taylor.

SPEAKER_00 25:59

Uh-huh. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 26:01

Friend said, Hold on now, come up out of that room.

SPEAKER_02 26:04

It's it's Tyler the name of the man, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 26:09

I was like, okay, maybe uh we got some money we done see somebody to look for, and maybe this is like a was trying to put two and two together and wasn't coming up with four.

SPEAKER_02 26:19

Yeah, I had fun with this book. I did. Oh my god. And hold on. Can I tell you a little bit? Oh, I'm sorry, go ahead.

SPEAKER_05 26:29

Uh-uh, you go ahead.

SPEAKER_02 26:30

Okay.

Review Giveaway And How To Enter

SPEAKER_02 26:31

So for my two-year author anniversary and book anniversary for the inheritance of Amaya Montgomery. Um, if um the readers will either listen to the audiobook, which I think Lexi and I both highly recommend. It's on Audible, or read the book. It's on KU, um, Kittle Unlimited, or read the book. Um, if they leave a review review before September the 30th, um, and you can leave the review on Instagram, TikTok, Goodreads, and Amazon. Each review, so you can get one review on one of those platforms, or you can give four reviews on each of the platforms and you go into a drawing. Each review, your name going to the drawing. So your name's going to draw one, two, three, or four times. And it's gonna be two $25 Visa gift cards that you can win for your reviews.

unknown 27:33

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 27:33

So, yeah, so it's my anniversary. Well, it's Maya's anniversary, but we're giving the gifts to our readers.

SPEAKER_05 27:45

Honey, I was gonna talk about Amber.

SPEAKER_04 27:48

Um Amber was crazy when she said I got my I got some new teeth.

SPEAKER_02 28:03

When she got herself together off the map, because you know she barely had teeth in her mouth.

SPEAKER_04 28:10

I don't know why they killed me so bad because of what she told no people I got me some new teeth. Look, and she it was the fact she said, child, I told her put it out there in the book because you've been through this. I'm not shame, I'm better now.

SPEAKER_02 28:31

That's right. It was yes. Oh, and now Amber was fun to write, she was so much fun to write with her little ghetto self.

SPEAKER_05 28:40

Why would you jump on this girl? You know she's slow, right? She made me so mad. I'm like, you know, she a little slow. Why would you do that?

SPEAKER_02 28:54

What'd you think about the scene of um the last scene of her and uh Amaya's daddy together? What did you think about this scene?

SPEAKER_05 29:05

That just broke my heart because this man was on a straight and narrow, and here come your nappy head and gap mouth self. And now look.

SPEAKER_02 29:18

Yeah. That was you wanna know something? You wanna know something I found out? What?

Family Secrets And What Got Cut

SPEAKER_02 29:26

So my biological father, but when I found this out, the book was already done. So um, and I wasn't gonna go back and change it. But I found out that like my biological father actually did use um heroin at one point in time in his life, but I wasn't gonna go back and change it. But that was crazy that I found that out. Because I actually met my biological family um three years, my biological father's side of the family, my paternal side of the family three years ago.

SPEAKER_05 29:59

How did that go?

SPEAKER_02 30:02

That went well. Unfortunately, the way I found them was um my grandfather's name um was Philip Guess. Um, my dad's name was Philip Guest II. And on Facebook, one of my Facebook friends had put um the um a program, I'm sorry, funeral program of my cousin. I won't say his name, but I can tell that that part with his name, the middle name, the last name, I knew who it was. So I reached out to a couple of people who were friends with them, and then they remembered my mom and they knew me. And um, they said that they um they had seen me when I was a little girl, when I was like one or two, but of course I don't remember that. And um, so yeah, so I was able to get in their life, but of course, my my father has been gone for like 30 years, so I wasn't able to meet him. Was it from the heroin? No, no, no, no, no, no, if that's the case, I would have had to take that out of the book. Okay, yes, I would have out of respect because matter of fact, the book that's coming out now, Her Soul, His Revenge, um, the man that's abusive to the lady in the book, uh, the second husband who's named after Quentin in this book. I used his middle name, his real middle name, and that book coming out until he was murdered. Then I had to go back and change the name to John Quez, you know, out of respect. So, uh, but no, I would have changed it. No, he just did heroin in his life, he didn't do it all his life. So, no, I would have had to change that.

SPEAKER_05 31:56

Yeah, oh my god, I always be saying when I read, where do people get these stories from? Because some of this stuff do not be reading like fiction, like yep, but I was like, no, but I'm not going to change that.

SPEAKER_02 32:14

I was if they read it, do you think they would be able to tell like the parts of no, yeah, no, because this book is too out there, too out there, and again, because even uh in the book, we're talking about the dad that raised me. You know, I had said the back the back of the book that my neither one of my mother, my mother and father, neither one of them ever did heroin, they never did physically beat me. You put that on the book. I put that in the back of the book. I didn't want no, I didn't want anyone thinking that uh my parents did see that.

SPEAKER_05 32:58

She got on to me about um one time. She was like, You didn't listen to the end. I said, when it got to the end of the end of the book, I didn't know it was nothing else. So I just but this time I let the recording play, the audio play all the way.

SPEAKER_02 33:10

Yeah, yep, it's in there. Did she read it? I don't know if it's in the audio book, but it's in the book.

SPEAKER_05 33:19

Okay, it's in the book book, but it ain't in the audio part of the book, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 33:24

So a lot of things were cut off. Um, matter of fact, the book had 53 chapters, but we took out one chapter because um it was um Amber going to church, finding God and everything, but they said that's not relevant. Uh, that was actually the last chapter. They said that wasn't relevant for a uh thriller book, so that was taken out. And um, so all the new books, some books have chapter 53 in it. I still have some of those books, but the newer books that's been revised doesn't it only have 52 chapters, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 34:01

And you know, you never know with you because at first I ain't gonna lie, I said, is this gonna be scary when the with the apparitions? I said, Is this gonna be scary? But then I said, This bastard, when I realized what was going on, I felt plain. I was like, Period, because you know you gotta scare me in um dragged in the darkness, yeah. So I said, which for the hell some of this going on, shadows and shit. And then when I found, then when you find out, you dirty bastard.

SPEAKER_02 34:34

Nope, nope, nope. Drake to the darkness was my first horror.

SPEAKER_05 34:40

I don't know. Do we get to see Quentin's experience in the next book? Like from where he is towards the end of the day.

SPEAKER_02 34:47

No, no, I was going back and forth with that. I think what happened to Quentin, that maybe just be the end of him. That just might be the end. I think I want to uh focus on Amaya's new life.

SPEAKER_05 35:03

Okay, because I just wanted to know that him and Joshua still suffering.

SPEAKER_02 35:08

Oh, they'll still be suffering. They're in prison for the oh, oh, oh, we're talking too much, sorry. Let me be quiet.

SPEAKER_05 35:17

It's it's the details. It's the devil is in the details. Because it's obvious that where y'all headed to jail.

SPEAKER_02 35:27

Oh, girl, the stuff they were doing.

SPEAKER_05 35:29

Well, the devil is in the details. That ain't no real tea. The devil is in the details.

SPEAKER_01 35:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 35:38

This was in the fact that this was your first book out the gate. That is wild. I did not know that.

SPEAKER_02 35:46

Yep, it's scary. Wow. Where my mind goes.

SPEAKER_05 35:52

This is how you introduce yourself to the world. Yeah, it is.

SPEAKER_00 35:58

How did you write like a psychopath?

SPEAKER_04 36:05

You came right on in. That's the that's the bad part of it.

SPEAKER_00 36:13

Oh goodness.

SPEAKER_05 36:16

When you hit submit and submitted this out to the world, how did you feel? Oh, I felt great.

SPEAKER_02 36:23

I said I'm like, I did it. I actually wrote a book and well, actually published a book. Because when I was younger, I always wanted to write a book and publish one and everything. And so, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 36:36

Since it was your life, was it therapeutic that you got to kind of put out your story, put a little bit of you?

SPEAKER_02 36:44

You know, I never thought about it that way. It was therapeutic writing the book, but I never thought about it being therapeutic putting it out. And, you know, but you're like the first person that um I'm telling even all this information to that the book is loosely based on me. So um I hadn't did, I've I had a couple of interviews a couple of years ago about the book, but you know, I was a new author, and of course, I do have anxiety that of course I did not say that, you know, it was loosely based on me. You're the first person I'm telling this to. So I don't know. I guess it is kind of therapeutic getting it out there.

SPEAKER_05 37:27

Look, it will be my nose ass to come up in here and asking you all this stuff. I'm nose ass hell. Yeah. All

Book Two Plans And New Releases

SPEAKER_05 37:38

righty. And then do you have an idea on maybe when book two will be released?

SPEAKER_02 37:44

I need to before I start writing book two. Book two was supposed to be released in 2026, but um I wasn't really promoting the way I should because I am a mental health therapist. I do have a 13-year-old son. So I'm not able to be on um social media as much, but now um I have April, and April posts for me, different things, and she gave me these interviews with wonderful hosts and content creators as yourself. So if we can um, you know, really get these reviews up, and if people have interest in it, I will write it. I I don't want to write it and it just sit there.

SPEAKER_05 38:33

Gotcha.

SPEAKER_02 38:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 38:35

Because honey, you got us interested now. We trying to see what y'all, what my what you about to do in book two? You and love LB.

SPEAKER_02 38:43

Yeah, it's gonna be a thriller. It and LB gonna have a big role in it as well. Well, L B gonna have a big role in it. He's gonna have to be kidnapped, he's gonna be kidnapped in it. Because Tyler has some bad people. Remember, he was mixed up with some bad people. So the past came back. Yep. So, but but LB go he's gonna give them those kidnappers hell though. I bet he's gonna be a prompt. What's next for Miss for Giletta? What's next for me is again um her soul, his revenge. But I really hope you allow me to come back for that because I'm very proud of that book. It's going to release on um, it's gonna release to everyone October 25th. But um, you're gonna be a license to thrill.

SPEAKER_05 39:46

But it's I was just gonna say, is this an exclusive drop for license to thrill?

SPEAKER_02 39:50

Yes, for licensed to thrill. It's an exclusive drop for licensed to thrill, and um, it's dedicated to single mothers and abused women. Okay, so it's a dark romance uh psychological thriller. And um then under my pen name, uh GP Jackson, I am uh in the middle of writing, I'm currently writing Christmas in Hartford too wedding. Um, Christmas in Hartford last year. It um it did very well. And um I do not like romances, but I like Christmas romances.

SPEAKER_05 40:30

You like Christmas?

SPEAKER_02 40:30

I like Christmas black romances, yes.

SPEAKER_05 40:33

Look, she said, let me put a let me be real specific.

SPEAKER_02 40:38

Yeah, yes. So those are the two things that's dropping, and then first of the year, I have a short story. Um, let's see. Uh Put the Desire. Um, it's a short story, and it's gonna be a novella coming out, part two, that's going to dive in. It's gonna pick up where it left off and more character development and everything like that. And it's a spicy romance suspense. So I'll start that the first of the year.

SPEAKER_05 41:11

And then that was GP GP Jackson. GP Jackson.

SPEAKER_02 41:18

Yeah, because my maiden name is uh Gilletta Filet Jackson. Jackson is my maiden name.

SPEAKER_05 41:24

Honey, I didn't even know you had another pen name. Are you um is there another order?

SPEAKER_02 41:29

My real name is Gilletta Shavers. Gilletta Shavers is my real name.

SPEAKER_05 41:33

I thought that was a pen name.

SPEAKER_02 41:35

No, it's my real name.

SPEAKER_05 41:37

Because when I seen you, I was gonna say, what's your name in?

SPEAKER_02 41:40

It's Gilletta Shavers.

SPEAKER_00 41:42

Yeah. Yep, yep, yep, yep, yep.

SPEAKER_05 41:47

Honey, I'm so excited for you and everything that you have coming out and that's dropping. Now, the GP Jackson, do you have another Arthur page for that? Or are you is it under you do?

SPEAKER_02 41:59

No, no, no. Social media, I put everything up under uh Gilletta Shavers. Gilletta.

SPEAKER_05 42:04

Okay, that's what I was trying to see so that we can let everybody know where to follow you and where we can keep up um when those works get ready to drop.

SPEAKER_02 42:13

Yes, yeah, it'll all be up under Gilletta Shavers.

SPEAKER_05 42:17

And it's on Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram? It is. Do you have a list, an email list?

SPEAKER_02 42:27

I do. Um Erica started that, yes. And um if you click the link, I think in the Instagram, like in my bio, I think you can get on the emailing list. Is there anything else? Erica just, she's she's my she's wait, who's Erica? I was gonna say who's Erica. That's it, Erica. Oh, I'm sorry, April Minor. Girl, you know, I have all the I think about Erica and dragged into darkness, honey. April Minor.

SPEAKER_01 43:00

I'm sorry, April. I was gonna say, hold on, Nat.

SPEAKER_02 43:04

Like no, no, no. I April, she is the one. She is the one. I don't know why I'm saying Erica because I'm sitting up here trying to recall all these characters. I don't know how authors can remember, especially characters that have written like 40 books. How can you remember all these characters? That's a lot. Yes, I can because you were telling me something in one book in my book that I wrote three years ago. I'm trying to remember. Like, hold on.

SPEAKER_05 43:39

And so yeah.

SPEAKER_02 43:52

Do I have a what?

SPEAKER_05 43:53

A Patreon. What's that?

SPEAKER_02 43:56

I don't have it, but what is it?

SPEAKER_05 43:57

You know, that's a I've been seeing everybody's About Patreon when you sign up. Um, I think it's kind of like those reading apps, like good novel, or where you can pay a subscription and get like early word from the authors and stuff. Oh, yeah. No, get free, uh not not free because some of it you have to pay for, but you get previews of um different books that they're working on or books that aren't out on Amazon or on their website, it's specifically for their Patreon. That's where I've been seeing a lot of.

SPEAKER_02 44:27

Oh, okay. So I had a street team. Well, I'm developing a street team, so they would get all of that. April's gonna take care of that.

SPEAKER_05 44:37

April. I love me some April, honey.

SPEAKER_02 44:39

I do too. I do too. I need her to sit down and rest though. I don't think she gets but two or three hours of sleep a night. Honey.

SPEAKER_05 44:48

And she still don't skip a beat. You would never be able to see.

SPEAKER_02 44:52

Because she has other, I mean, she has a full-time job, she has other author clients, but you would know she treats you like you're her only client, honey. And she has several other author clients, but you would never know it. You would think she's the only you're the only one she's working with.

SPEAKER_05 45:12

Baby, well, I am glad that I got to sit down and talk with you today.

Where To Follow And Final Reminders

SPEAKER_05 45:18

Me too. Thank you. You are welcome. It has been my pleasure, honey. So we're gonna remember to follow Gilletta Shavers. Is it Arthur Gilletta Shavers or is it just Gilletta Shavers on TikTok?

SPEAKER_02 45:34

On um TikTok is Author Gilletta Shavers. And um Facebook is Gilletta Shavers. Instagram is author underscore Gilletta underscore one two three.

SPEAKER_05 45:51

Okay. Yeah. And then we can click the link in the bio and make sure that you subscribe to her email list, and then you have until September 30th, the end of September. Is that September 30th?

SPEAKER_02 46:04

September 30th be the last day you can do the review to win a $25 Visa gift card.

SPEAKER_05 46:10

Yes, and you have up to four chances. Mm-hmm. You have up to four chances to be entered into it, and then this will drop. Let me get the date. Because I want to be able to, you know, let everybody be able to um get a chance to put their reviews in.

SPEAKER_02 46:34

So um I think October the 1st, maybe when uh she's gonna pull the winners. I'm not for sure yet. I'm not for sure. So I don't really want to give a date, and I'm not for sure because I'm not doing this. This is all Erica. I'm just providing the gift cards. You know what? You're gonna have to edit this because I do not want April to know I'm saying Erica, and I do not know why I'm saying Erica. Girl, brain fog. I'm thinking about it. April knows we love uh uh April knows we love her, honey.

SPEAKER_05 47:13

April knows we love her. We're gonna try to get this out by the 18th to give the people a chance to go ahead and get their reviews in because you know sometimes Amazon takes a little a couple days to upload the reviews.

SPEAKER_02 47:26

Yeah, I want Amazon for sure, but you know, Goodreads is right there, and then also TikTok and um you know Instagram, but we definitely need to be amazing.

SPEAKER_05 47:36

Oh, so they can do social media, so each social media is a different one as well, then.

SPEAKER_02 47:40

Yeah, so if you if you do uh one on Amazon, that's fine. But if you do one on Amazon and Instagram, you get two um drawings. So you do all four, you get all four. So you get a drawing for each review that you do.

SPEAKER_05 47:55

Alrighty then. Have you done your review yet? I am doing it. I just finished uh I don't know why I was holding on to the lat like the last end of the of the book this morning before I went to church this morning. Okay, I was listening to the last little piece where they were doing their interviews and stuff. But as soon as I get off of here, I'm gonna go run and grab my girls and then I'm gonna put it in. Okay, and then my um it'll drop tomorrow on TikTok. My little spoiler-free thoughts.

SPEAKER_02 48:28

Okay, all right. Well, I can't wait to see this um the recording of this.

SPEAKER_05 48:35

Thank you when it drops. So until next time, you guys have the most amazing day. And I want to thank Miss Jolita again for joining us.

SPEAKER_00 48:46

Thank you. You are thank you everyone out there for um listening to the interview. Until next time, honey. Bye bye. Bye