Speaker 1: I Am all In.
Speaker 2: I Am all In with Scott Patterson, an iHeartRadio podcast.
Speaker 1: Hey everybody, Scott Patterson, I Am all In Podcast one
Speaker 1: eleven productions, iHeart Radio. One on one interview. We have
Speaker 1: a very special guest, Micole Austo, who is a children's
Speaker 1: book editor for nearly a decade and began writing professionally
Speaker 1: in two thousand and four. She's written a children's book
Speaker 1: about Gilmore Girls, or Gilmore's Book that's geared toward children.
Speaker 1: McColl welcome, Thanks for coming on. We're real excited to
Speaker 1: have you tell us a little bit about your book,
Speaker 1: Gilmore Girls at Home in Stars Hollow.
Speaker 3: It is entitled I would be so happy to so
Speaker 3: Gilmore Girls at Home and Stars Hollow is actually a
Speaker 3: children's picture book, and it's a storybook that tells a
Speaker 3: little bit about Lorelei and Rory and their origins in
Speaker 3: Stars Hollows.
Speaker 4: So it's a storybook.
Speaker 3: It's a picture book meant for Gilmore Superband, meant for everyone.
Speaker 4: Really, it's a.
Speaker 3: Story for mothers and daughters, and it's a chance for
Speaker 3: everyone to revisit all their favorite characters and Stars Hollow
Speaker 3: and just spend a little time with all their favorite
Speaker 3: people in their favorite place. It was so much fun
Speaker 3: to write. It was such a good time. I had
Speaker 3: such a blast.
Speaker 1: So why did you choose Gilmore? Girls?
Speaker 3: You know I will tell you the truth. So I have,
Speaker 3: as you just said, I've been an editor. I started
Speaker 3: my publishing career in editing, and I worked in mostly
Speaker 3: very commercial, pop culture driven books. I was the editor
Speaker 3: of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Charmed and Angel and
Speaker 3: the original Sabrina the Teenage which upon a time with
Speaker 3: Melissa Joan Hart. So I got my start in Media Italians,
Speaker 3: and then when I began writing, I started writing in
Speaker 3: Media Italians as well. And then when I left working
Speaker 3: as an editor and started writing full time, I have
Speaker 3: done a lot of original work, but I also get
Speaker 3: a lot of solicitations for Media Italians because I'm very
Speaker 3: obsessed with pop culture and I love reading and writing
Speaker 3: pop culture stuff too. So a couple of years back,
Speaker 3: I think it was The Office picture Book that sort
Speaker 3: of led the charge of this new wave of what
Speaker 3: seems like a trend in pop culture picture books that
Speaker 3: seemed a little bit kind of discordant, like what a
Speaker 3: strange idea Michael Scott Dunder Mifflin as Children, but it
Speaker 3: was extremely successful and since then there have been a
Speaker 3: bunch and I've also written.
Speaker 4: The Friends picture books.
Speaker 3: There are two out now and another one coming out tomorrow,
Speaker 3: and a few Roman Holiday for the same editor who
Speaker 3: who edited me for Gilmore Girls. And when they called
Speaker 3: about Gilmour, they were so excited that they were able
Speaker 3: to secure the.
Speaker 4: License, and I was so thrilled that they came to me.
Speaker 3: It was just not it was a no brainer, obviously,
Speaker 3: Like I had watched the show in its original incarnation
Speaker 3: live with my friends, like every Tuesday night we would
Speaker 3: cook dinner together post college.
Speaker 4: That was That was how I learned to cook. I'll
Speaker 4: tell you honestly.
Speaker 3: We would play off who was in charge of cooking,
Speaker 3: and we would watch the show together on Tuesdays, and
Speaker 3: then we would rewatch it long after the fact binging,
Speaker 3: and then of course we watched the Netflix revival.
Speaker 4: And so I mean, how could I say no? Who? How?
Speaker 4: Like there was no chance in how I.
Speaker 1: Don't know, I don't know, I don't know. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: guess you couldn't.
Speaker 4: I couldn't.
Speaker 1: So let me ask you this, why do you think
Speaker 1: the call? Why do you think the show is such
Speaker 1: a cultural staple for TV fans, and it seems to
Speaker 1: still be growing globally.
Speaker 4: It is.
Speaker 3: I wish that I could tell you why trends take
Speaker 3: off when they do, because obviously we'd all be, you know,
Speaker 3: phenomenally successful.
Speaker 4: It's much more than a.
Speaker 1: Trend twenty three years and it's getting stronger. It's snowballing.
Speaker 3: I don't know exactly why it feels like there's something
Speaker 3: happening right now, but maybe it's because it's on Netflix
Speaker 3: right now, and so the youngsters are watching it right now.
Speaker 3: Like I have an eleven year old daughter, and everyone
Speaker 3: her age is now binging it with their moms. And
Speaker 3: I learned this because a couple of mom friends I
Speaker 3: have we're watching it with their daughters a year or
Speaker 3: two ago. So now my daughters are old enough to
Speaker 3: watch it, and we've been watching it when we've been
Speaker 3: watching it because I've been working on the book, but
Speaker 3: we would have been watching it at this age anyway.
Speaker 3: And I think it's just it's so heartfelt, first of all,
Speaker 3: So there's so much earnestness in there underneath all of
Speaker 3: the fast talking and all of the screwball comedy and
Speaker 3: all of the wit, and that to me, that always
Speaker 3: gets me that no matter how much you're laughing out
Speaker 3: and you're always laughing out loud, there's really a gut punch,
Speaker 3: whether it's sentimental or whether it's agonizing, depending on the
Speaker 3: episode or often within the same episode. There's always so
Speaker 3: much emotion and then there's also there's so much intelligence
Speaker 3: to it. It's such a sharply written show and there's
Speaker 3: so much to pay attention to, and no matter how
Speaker 3: many times you watch it. Oh, we watched the episode
Speaker 3: where Rory meets Christopher's parents just the other day, and
Speaker 3: there's that moment just after she's introduced.
Speaker 4: Where she curtsies and Laura Lai whispers to her, she just.
Speaker 3: Curtsy and I had missed that, and my daughter and
Speaker 3: I almost fell off the couch laughing. I have seen
Speaker 3: that episode so many times, but somehow that moment between
Speaker 3: the two of them killed me all over again, and
Speaker 3: the two.
Speaker 4: Of us died. So it just it begs for constant rewatching.
Speaker 3: It hits you in all your fields and it just
Speaker 3: challenges you. But also it's so soothing, so it really
Speaker 3: is perfect for all ages and all occasions.
Speaker 1: You know, it's very healing isn't it. I mean, I
Speaker 1: think about the mother, the estranged mother and daughter and
Speaker 1: they're not talking, and they've had a huge fight and
Speaker 1: they've moved out of the house or they're still living
Speaker 1: in the house, but they're just really acting in the
Speaker 1: rebellious way. And they sit down watching Gilmore's Up Girls
Speaker 1: episode and they laugh and laugh, and at the end
Speaker 1: of the episode they look at each other and say,
Speaker 1: what the heck were we mad at about? Yeah, we've
Speaker 1: just bonded again. You know, we're close again. We appreciate
Speaker 1: each other again. So I think it's true for mothers
Speaker 1: and it's true for daughters. So it's a very powerful
Speaker 1: salve that people apply on a weekly basis, and now
Speaker 1: they can binge it every day. And I mean, it's
Speaker 1: a wonderfully therapeutic show. It really truly is. All Right, So,
Speaker 1: since your books were written for all ages, what topics
Speaker 1: does your book cover from the show?
Speaker 3: It's really about finding your place and finding your home
Speaker 3: and making your home and making your family. And I
Speaker 3: think it's really really the same themes that the show
Speaker 3: covers in terms of Lorala finding her strength or coming
Speaker 3: into her strength, because it was always there obviously, and
Speaker 3: making her way and sort of growing into herself and
Speaker 3: understanding that home and family is what you make of it.
Speaker 3: And certainly we all love watching her reconcile and make
Speaker 3: peace with Emily and make peace with her family, but
Speaker 3: we also I think so many people what they love
Speaker 3: about the show is the understanding that we all have
Speaker 3: our different experiences of family and it doesn't necessarily have
Speaker 3: to look like that traditional, really outdated idea of the
Speaker 3: nuclear family, and that what Laura and Rory built for
Speaker 3: themselves in Stars Hollow as a home is so much
Speaker 3: more than that nuclear family that was sort of fed
Speaker 3: to us once upon a time, And that's the book
Speaker 3: is really about what a family and a home is
Speaker 3: and how and how we all define it for ourselves
Speaker 3: and just what that home was and Stars Hollow and
Speaker 3: how we all, like you said, I think the reason
Speaker 3: it's too thing is because we all feel like it's
Speaker 3: our home. Like when we're having a bad day, we
Speaker 3: come home to Stars Hollow, or.
Speaker 1: At least we wish it. Well, yeah, we're like our home. Fascinating,
Speaker 1: absolutely fascinating. So you worked in editing for how long
Speaker 1: before you got the idea to write this book?
Speaker 3: I was an editor for about ten years, but it's
Speaker 3: been I mean, I left in Oh gosh, I'm always wrong.
Speaker 3: I want to say two thousand and seven, but I
Speaker 3: bet you I'm off by a few years. And I've
Speaker 3: been writing. My first published novel came out in two
Speaker 3: thousand and five, I think, and I've been public since then,
Speaker 3: so there's been a lot of overlap.
Speaker 1: So these types of picture books aimed at all audiences,
Speaker 1: but maybe specifically kids, that they're really popular. They sell
Speaker 1: really well. So the publishing business is pretty happy about
Speaker 1: that because they find so what doesn't sell well in
Speaker 1: terms of celebrity books or you know, I know a
Speaker 1: lot of celebrities they want to write novels, or they
Speaker 1: you know, they want to write tell alls and all
Speaker 1: this stuff. Do those things sell?
Speaker 4: Yes? I think most It's a complicated equation.
Speaker 3: Celebrity books do sell well, but you have to factor
Speaker 3: in that they also get paid so much that you're
Speaker 3: still probably taking a loss at the end of the day.
Speaker 3: Most publishers, I think, are probably making most of their
Speaker 3: money from their backlist, from the things like Catcher and
Speaker 3: The Rye that are just selling over and over and
Speaker 3: over again into.
Speaker 4: Libraries and schools, and things like that.
Speaker 3: Maybe not libraries because they're only buying the one or
Speaker 3: two copies a year, but they're Yeah, they're selling off
Speaker 3: of they're making their profits off of their backlist because
Speaker 3: the things that generate the most money are often the
Speaker 3: things that cost.
Speaker 4: Them the most.
Speaker 3: But the celebrity titles and the pop culture titles are
Speaker 3: the ones that make the biggest splash these days, for
Speaker 3: better or for worse.
Speaker 1: So they have to have them, even though they're losing
Speaker 1: money on They have to.
Speaker 3: Have them because that they're always losing money on them.
Speaker 3: It's really a question of the license costs a lot
Speaker 3: of money. The author does not always cost a lot
Speaker 3: of money in the and the art usually comes from
Speaker 3: the licenser. It depends on the project. It's it's not
Speaker 3: always it depends on the project.
Speaker 1: Plus depending on the celebrity, you got to pay an
Speaker 1: upfront bonus, which is probably problematic.
Speaker 4: Yeah, are you are you looking for a ghostwriter, Scott
Speaker 4: or a co writer? Is this?
Speaker 1: I wouldn't know. I wouldn't know what they're right? Would
Speaker 1: I write?
Speaker 4: Well, that's what I'm for, that's my job.
Speaker 1: This is a section we called You've been gilmoord uh
Speaker 1: oh All right, you ready? What is your favorite episode
Speaker 1: and why?
Speaker 4: My favorite episode?
Speaker 3: I'm a real sucker for a holiday themes. So I
Speaker 3: love is the deep Fried Korean Thanksgiving where they go
Speaker 3: to Lane's family and they have to do like four
Speaker 3: Thanksgiving dinners. I love anything where they have to do
Speaker 3: anything anything holiday related. Whenever there's a holiday lurking, I
Speaker 3: make my family watch nothing but holiday themed episodes of
Speaker 3: our favorite TV shows. So so I love that one.
Speaker 3: I love the Festival of Living Art.
Speaker 4: I love that one.
Speaker 3: I obviously love Why don't have a spoiler alert? When
Speaker 3: Lorelai proposes? That killed me?
Speaker 1: I almost yeah, we already, uh we already we just
Speaker 1: did that one.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, no that that kills me every time.
Speaker 1: Did you like that proposal? Did you like that she propos?
Speaker 4: Did I like it? That's a good question. I mean,
Speaker 4: I definitely was very moved by it. I wasn't I
Speaker 4: didn't see.
Speaker 3: It coming, and I was so upset at what was
Speaker 3: going on with Rory.
Speaker 4: I felt very.
Speaker 3: I felt very protective of Lorelei in that moment, and
Speaker 3: I really wanted her to have what she needed and
Speaker 3: what she deserved, which I thought was luke. So I
Speaker 3: liked it in that, I was like, Oh, good for you.
Speaker 3: But I guess I would have liked I would have
Speaker 3: liked her to have to be taken care of more
Speaker 3: like to you know. But I think I think everything
Speaker 3: in the end it worked out the way. I was
Speaker 3: happy with the finale, let's put.
Speaker 4: It that way.
Speaker 1: I haven't a lot of.
Speaker 3: The complaints that a lot of people have in terms
Speaker 3: of how things were handled toward the end of the series,
Speaker 3: but I understand what was going on.
Speaker 1: Who's your favorite Gilmore Girls character?
Speaker 3: That is a really tough question. I mean, I love
Speaker 3: them all for so many different reasons. I think Laurelize
Speaker 3: the one I associate the most with. And probably the
Speaker 3: best compliment that I ever got as a writer was
Speaker 3: when one of my editors told me that my manuscripts
Speaker 3: are like a Gilmore Girls script and she feels like
Speaker 3: she has to go look up all the pop culture references.
Speaker 3: She said, it's like reading the note the liners from
Speaker 3: the Gilmore Girls DVDs that she used to have. And
Speaker 3: I didn't even know that that was a thing, but
Speaker 3: it was so flattering. So but also, I mean, everyone's amazing,
Speaker 3: Like Suki is so amazing and Lane.
Speaker 4: It was just Adam Brodie, Come on, this cameo was fabulous.
Speaker 1: So mm hmmm, is Luke the best match for Laurel?
Speaker 4: I I think so, I think so.
Speaker 1: I mean, is there any doubt? Yeah, I mean there's
Speaker 1: some doubt, you have some doubt.
Speaker 3: No, I just I get a little bit gas lit
Speaker 3: by everyone else's questions, like I mean to me, yeah,
Speaker 3: I mean, I was like, do you think so?
Speaker 4: I hope so right?
Speaker 1: Yeah? Yeah, I thought so. Who's your favorite boyfriend for Rory?
Speaker 4: None of the above.
Speaker 3: We were talking about this at breakfast. I think my
Speaker 3: daughter was like Lane Lane, but I don't know. I
Speaker 3: I think maybe Dean out of the out of the Dean,
Speaker 3: Jess and Logan projecta, I would say Dean was maybe
Speaker 3: the least problematic in his first iteration. But also I
Speaker 3: would definitely definitely have fallen for Jess and Logan, even
Speaker 3: though I don't think they were great for her.
Speaker 4: In the long run.
Speaker 1: Mm hmmmm hmm. Do you have a favorite season of
Speaker 1: the series. I liked the.
Speaker 3: Yale the early Yale years, so maybe like season four ish,
Speaker 3: and I was happy with the way things were wrapped
Speaker 3: up at the end of season seven, Like I was
Speaker 3: glad that Luke and lore. I.
Speaker 4: You know, I would have liked more confirmation.
Speaker 3: I would have liked like another proposal, But but I
Speaker 3: don't have a favorite.
Speaker 4: It's too much. It's too hard to choose.
Speaker 1: Okay, Uh, what was your favorite part of the series.
Speaker 4: Favorite part of the series, do you know? I will
Speaker 4: say I liked. It's not a favorite.
Speaker 3: Again, it's too hard to choose, But I really liked
Speaker 3: in the revival, the wave of the show handled Richard's absence.
Speaker 4: I thought that that was.
Speaker 3: Pretty impressive, and I really appreciated the fact that the
Speaker 3: actors had a chance to mourn him. It's a weird
Speaker 3: thing to say as a favorite, and it's not a favorite,
Speaker 3: but I thought that that was like his absence was
Speaker 3: really palpable and they acknowledged it.
Speaker 4: So that was that was pretty impressive to me, right.
Speaker 1: Okay, what is your favorite Gilmore Girls era era? If
Speaker 1: you were to divide them up into eras, I guess seasons.
Speaker 1: Maybe it's maybe, maybe it's what's your favorite season?
Speaker 4: Well, I guess season. I liked.
Speaker 3: I liked anything to do with hep Alien. I loved
Speaker 3: when Lane went on her Christian tour with her rock band.
Speaker 4: I loved I loved when Dean built Rory a car,
Speaker 4: so the beginning of their relationship was great. But I
Speaker 4: also loved when Jess came in and ruined that.
Speaker 3: So you know that era, the Jess ruins everything between
Speaker 3: Lauri and Dean, Rory and Dean, and when Luke and
Speaker 3: Laura Lifers got together, I lost it. So that, yeah,
Speaker 3: did not like when April came along.
Speaker 4: That was the opposite of my favorites.
Speaker 1: Yeah, all right, well, look great talking to you. That's
Speaker 1: all the time we have with you.
Speaker 4: Thank you so long.
Speaker 1: But it was it was a real blast. And uh,
Speaker 1: your book is called Gilmore Girls at Home in Stars
Speaker 1: Hollo by mccol ostro. Is that Ostro or.
Speaker 4: Astro aus Stow?
Speaker 3: Ah, you're in such good company, don't worry McCole austow.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and so pick up a copy everybody. It's a fascinating,
Speaker 1: fascinating book. We've had a wonderful time getting to know
Speaker 1: you a little bit. And uh, thanks so much for
Speaker 1: coming on for your time.
Speaker 3: Thank you, and let me know when we're going to collaborate.
Speaker 3: I'm right here.
Speaker 1: Well let's do it. Yeah, yeah, let's collabse let's do it.
Speaker 1: I'm getting idea. Okay, yeah, that'd be great, that'd be great.
Speaker 1: I'm really interested. I did a go around once and
Speaker 1: I never made a deal with anybody. Uh, but I
Speaker 1: got some you know, fifty to fifty offers and some
Speaker 1: ninety ten offers, and I just you know, nothing really
Speaker 1: seemed to write for me. It wasn't the right book
Speaker 1: in the whole thing. But yeah, so let's talk about yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: all right, cool, all right, all right, great, talking to
Speaker 1: you all the best. I take care hey everybody, and
Speaker 1: talk forget. Follow us on Instagram at I Am all
Speaker 1: In Podcast and email us at Gilmore at iHeartRadio dot com.