This week, we’re joined by contemporary romance author Georgia Stone to talk about her new rom-com, The Roommate Rule.

Georgia shares how growing up in Switzerland shaped her creativity, how she came back to reading and writing as an adult, and how late-night writing sessions helped her turn a tiny idea into her debut novel.

We also talk about doomed rules, forced proximity, tall heroines, banter, book tours, author signatures, and the joy of writing imaginary friends for a living.

Matt & Andrea here. Thanks for joining us on this journey.
We'd love to hear from you. Visit us at www.OurNextChapterPodcast.com

We’re back from a very bookish road trip with a slightly late episode, a dash of magic, and the world’s biggest em dash announcement.

This week, we launch our very serious, very unofficial Save the Em Dash movement, recap a weekend of author events with Kirsty Greenwood, Ashley Poston, Kayla Olson, Livy Hart, and Naina Kumar, and dive into why magical realism has become one of our favorite storytelling devices.

From Romantic Hero and The Love of My Afterlife to The Seven Year Slip, The Dead Romantics, and The Someday Garden, we talk about romance books that use one impossible thing to make grief, hope, humor, love, and change feel even more real. We also share how magical realism may be making its way into our own book.

Plus, the great Mattzini does some Matt-gic.

Join the Movement: www.OurNextChapter.com/SaveTheEmDash

Matt & Andrea here. Thanks for joining us on this journey.
We'd love to hear from you. Visit us at www.OurNextChapterPodcast.com

Lauren Okie is back for our first-ever return guest episode, and we’re talking all things Tropesick, her second novel out June 16. We get into romance tropes, writing through fear, sophomore-book pressure, big emotional swings, and why Lauren is so good at writing stories that feel messy, honest, hot, and human.

Plus, we rank Andrea’s favorite romance tropes and somehow make room for Annabel Monaghan, fake dating, Jason Momoa, and Matt’s ongoing refusal to watch The Notebook.

Matt & Andrea here. Thanks for joining us on this journey.
We'd love to hear from you. Visit us at www.OurNextChapterPodcast.com

In this episode, we're recording at LaunchPad Studios in Dallas while surviving May: graduations, theater awards, senior celebrations, middle school milestones, Mother’s Day, road trips, and the big-time realization we’re about to have both a high school freshman and a college freshman.

Then we dive into two of our favorite new summer reads: The Shippers by Katherine Center and Dolly All the Time by Annabel Monaghan.

Matt & Andrea here. Thanks for joining us on this journey.
We'd love to hear from you. Visit us at www.OurNextChapterPodcast.com

We kick things off with author signatures, big family updates, and the very strange feeling of watching their boys grow up and move toward their own next chapters.

Then we're joined by Dr. Irena Smith, author of Troika, a powerful memoir about a three-day road trip across California with her mother and daughter that unfolds into something much deeper: family history, identity, generational dynamics, and the stories we carry with us.

We talk improv and storytelling, how ADHD can be a creative superpower, the art of “show, don’t tell,” and what it means to write something true without losing the humor and lightness of real life. Plus, The Impossible Detour somehow becomes a time-traveling carnival romance.

And to wrap it all up, we celebrate our anniversary with trivia from the years we started dating and got married, because nothing says romance like remembering Napster, Survivor, and Wedding Crashers.

Matt & Andrea here. Thanks for joining us on this journey.
We'd love to hear from you. Visit us at www.OurNextChapterPodcast.com

Andrea is back on pothole patrol, we wrestle with the soulmate question at the heart of Your Soul Mail Is Attached, and after our conversation with Joan F. Smith, we get a special soul mail delivery of our own.

Joan joins us to talk about the big idea behind her new adult novel, her move from YA to adult fiction, her writing process, and how personal experiences shape her stories. Plus, she plays The Impossible Meet Cute with us and closes things out with our Final Five.

Matt & Andrea here. Thanks for joining us on this journey.
We'd love to hear from you. Visit us at www.OurNextChapterPodcast.com

We took this one to the movies.

In this special episode, we headed out to see Project Hail Mary , then talk through all of it, and yes, this is your official spoiler warning.

We’re breaking down what worked, what surprised us, and the moments that stuck with us most. From Gosling's glasses crawling all over his face to Rocky being Amaze Amaze Amaze, we’re getting into everything.

If you haven’t read or seen it yet, maybe save this one.
If you have, come hang out.

Matt & Andrea here. Thanks for joining us on this journey.
We'd love to hear from you. Visit us at www.OurNextChapterPodcast.com

Matt and Andrea kick things off with an audiobook narration audition before welcoming bestselling author Natalie Keller-Reinert to the show. Natalie shares how a lifelong love of horses turned into a writing career, the path from indie publishing to Flatiron Books, and the story behind her new novel The Jump.

We then wrap up with a story about the Dreamers and Readers festival and how the Dallas-Fort Worth book community showed up for authors when it mattered most.

Matt & Andrea here. Thanks for joining us on this journey.
We'd love to hear from you. Visit us at www.OurNextChapterPodcast.com