.png)
Storytime with Skye
New York Times bestselling author Skye Warren and author friends come up with fun romance stories for readers. Come for the celebration of romance, stay for the laughs. Pick our next story inside the Storytime with Skye Facebook group.
Storytime with Skye
The Mafia Heir and the College Student with USA Today bestselling author C. Hallman
Join New York Times bestselling author Skye Warren each week as she crafts a new story with one of her author guests!
About C. Hallman:
Born and raised in Germany, Cassandra attended business school in her hometown before immigrating to America when she was only eighteen. At nineteen, she married her husband, who was active duty military at that time. Together, they traveled the country for years, before finally settling down. Now, she lives in the mountains of North Carolina with her husband of sixteen years, their three children, two dogs, and one hairless cat.
C. Hallman is a USA Today Bestselling Author who wrote her debut novel in 2018 and has since published over 100 books in various romance subgenres. Her works have been on numerous bestseller lists and have been translated into 8 languages around the world. She is also the owner of Bleeding Heart Press.
And if you enjoy this episode, you'll love King of Corium by C. Hallman.
You can find all her books here: https://www.authorchallman.com.
Download a FREE steamy audiobook novella by Skye Warren!
https://BookHip.com/GQAFNCB
You get to help us pick our story prompts inside the Storytime with Skye Podcast Facebook group. Join here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1030813154714760
Rate, Review, & Subscribe
Like what you heard? We will be so grateful if you’d rate, review, and subscribe to the Storytime with Skye. It helps your book lovers find the podcast, too!
Want to learn more about Skye Warren's books? Find her books at www.skyewarren.com/books.
Welcome to the Story. It's story Time With Sky. You can fall in until you cry. It's story Time with Sky. It's story Time with Sky. Welcome to Story Time with Sky. I'm new host, New York Times bestselling author, sky Warring. Every week I tell a brand new story based on the heroes, heroines and meet Cutes that you want to hear about. I bring on some of my favorite romance authors as guests. To help me craft a hilarious, steamy, and ultimately romantic story with a guaranteed happily ever after. So pour a glass of something fun. Welcome to the story. Hello, everyone. Welcome to Storytime with Skye. I'm Skye Warren, and this is my guest, Cassie Hallman. Hi, Cassie. Hi, guys. You write dark romance. That's correct. That's correct. What brought you into dark romance? I always loved dark romance. I remember literally the first time I read a dark romance. It was, um, Anna Zara's book twist me. I listened to it in audio and I remember in the car. I was listening to it and I was like, I had this epiphany, like, wait, like, this was a thing. Because, like, I don't know, I always had, like, a vivid imagination, and I always, like, thought about stories like this, but I didn't think, I thought I was, like, the only weirdo that would read stuff like that. I wasn't a big reader when I was like younger, younger. So I, I missed the whole, um, historic romance. Yes. Genre. I missed all of that. So I got, when I first started reading, I read just contemporary romance and then I just stumbled upon this book and I was like, Oh my God. And then I just went down the rabbit hole. I was hooked and yeah, I didn't start writing until 2018. So. I would have guessed more because I co written so much. I have so many books. Yeah, you're prolific. That's great. Let me just tell everyone your bio real quick. So it says that you were born and raised in Germany. Cassandra attended business school in her hometown before immigrating to America when she was only 18. At 19, she married her husband who was active duty military at the time. Together, they traveled the country for years before finally settling down. Now she lives in the mountains of North Carolina with her husband of 16 years, three children, and one hairless cat. Ste Hallman is a USA Today bestselling author who wrote her debut novel in 2018 and has since published over 100 books in various romance subgenres. Her works have been on numerous bestseller lists and have been translated into eight languages around the world. That is a lot. That is a lot of little babies in your house. That's a lot of books that you are writing. You are busy. But I think you like being busy, right? Yes. Yes. I also have a pen name too with Novella. So I have a lot of books there too. I'm just always busy. That's wild. And you went to business school. That's really cool. Yeah, that really gave me a leg up on the whole self publishing thing. When I was younger, my teachers always, they always told me, they always encouraged me to write. They're like, Oh, you're such a great writer. They, they told my parents, but when it came down to like, find a job, they were like, I told him I was going to, I wanted to do something that was just. Something like it, or at least something creative. And I got the whole, well, you know, there's just not jobs for that here right now. And, and I was also really good at the business stuff. So I was good in math and good in like general business. And that's. They sent me to business school and I did that. And at first I didn't like it there, but now I'm really grateful that I went because it really helped me being a self published author. Yeah. I think like business. And like, also like technology are things that, you know, you can do them and then you can apply them anywhere. But I do think it's funny that like, so many of us, like, we got to prove our parents wrong when we become authors because they're like, you can never make a career out of that. For sure. I'm so glad. My mom, she works in a little bakery in, in Germany, in the same town I grew up, and my teachers actually still go there and talk to her, so they all know that makes me really happy. I'm like, totally. Oh my God., do they read your books? I don't know if my teachers read my book, but I know my mom reads my book, all my books every time. Oh, does she? That's so sweet. Yeah. She is the first one to read 'em when they, when I translate them in German, she's the first one to read them. Oh, I love that. Okay. Yeah. So we are gonna tell a story today, you and I. Okay. Which I have worked with co-writers. I don't think as much as you, but still I have. And you have. So I think it'll be fun. I think it'll be, we'll probably go a little dark 'cause we both like that. Mm-Hmm., I am going to give you three and then we just go from there. The hero, the heroine, and the meet. Cute. Okay. So the first part, the hero. Is that he is a hit man to know, and I know you have written those, I believe you have written those before. Yep. Yep. I literally have a book called hit man. You have a book called a hit man. Well, there you go. I mean, really. And the 2nd part is the heroine. And I actually am going to say the all this 1 I'm doing based on you because I'm really curious about this. So, the only thing I'm going to say about her. is that she does not live in the country where she was born. Oh, okay. Yes. Interesting. Have you written heroines like who are maybe from German or just from other places? Um, I don't think so. I need to get more. I, I, I actually thought about it the other day that I, I'm like, I always go for the same, like, kind of people. I need to broaden my, my horizon a little bit and go for people from like other countries and other ethnicities. Well, we're going to play with it right now. Yes. And then the last part is based on me, which is because I recently came out with the professor and I'm writing other books in that university. And so they meet at the university. At they meet at the university, it doesn't tell us like how they meet doesn't mean they're both students or both or anything like that. All right. Sounds good. Okay. So, those are the only prompts we are given. There's a lot of flexibility. We can do anything we want. What are you thinking? The 1st thing that comes to my mind when you said, like, a different country, I thought maybe, like. Something like a country that is like maybe a little rundown, they have not enough, they don't have a lot of money so she comes here and she really appreciates everything that she has here. I see a lot of people that immigrate from like countries where, you know, parts of like Russia or someplace, especially where women are not treated as well as here. And then they would really, they really appreciate how they're treated here and the money. Yeah, for sure. So yeah, my mom was actually an immigrant and my husband is an immigrant. And so we both were raised a lot on the idea of like how great America is and that's why we came here. Um, and then of course it's been hard to like see criticism and be like, Oh gosh. Maybe it wasn't as great as we were told, but it's still better than where we came from. We don't know. So Germany and America is like really similar. So I can't, I can't say the same for, for me, like the same way, but why did you come? Were you looking for adventure? Originally I only came to learn English. I was only supposed to be here for one year. And at the end of my year, I met my husband and he was like, you're not going home. We're going to get married. And I was like, no, we're not. And then he's like, yes, we are. And I was like, fine. That's the quick version. Yeah. I love that. Um, now we've been married for this year. We'll be 17 years. Wow. Yup. Okay, so she is coming from a place she's coming because she thinks that she'll have a better life, you know, and that the place that she's coming from is maybe a little bit trouble and not as prosperous and not a safe for women. And so my question is, like, how old do we want her to be? Like, because of the university angle, we could have her be a student, but we also don't have to do that. Yeah, I usually write my hormones, like, um, in the early 20s anyways. I feel, I really like to write them a little bit younger because I like them to be a little bit on the naive side. Yes. So, and when they're older, it's harder to do that. You know, when you're older, you're, you're automatically smarter when you're a little bit younger, you're, you're still a little dumb and that's okay. It's so true. Though I think it is true. Just think of everybody. Think about back when you were 19 or 20, you're, you're so dumb. Still, you don't know anything. So she doesn't know anything, especially about men in particular. Well, maybe she knows. To be nervous around men, but maybe she also thinks that the U S it will be different. It will be better. Yes. She, she thinks in the U S everything is going to be better. And she doesn't have to fear men. Like she does. And is she from Russia? Are we saying Russia? We can do Russia ask we can do on my other side of my family, they would always tell me that we're from Ukraine. But when my brother looked into our, we're. The time that we came like, like there's a lot of little countries and especially at that time when they came over, like the countries were like sort of splitting up and coming together. So it's sort of unclear, but definitely in that area, that makes sense. Like Poland, maybe. Okay. And so she comes over, does she come over alone or does she have her family with her? She can come over alone. Yeah. I did it. I came over alone. Yeah. And so you know what that's like. Plus I think probably it's easier to get like a student visa than it. Oh, yeah. Oh yeah. It's really hard to get like your family to come. I tried that and it's really hard. So yeah, student visa is really easy. Okay. What if. Ooh, I just had this like idea, even though we made him a hit man, which like makes you think that that's part of how they get together, but it doesn't have to be, it could be like green card, you know? So, okay, let's see where it goes. So she has come over to study. What is she studying? It's gotta be something she's passionate about. I mean, she got the student visa, so that means like her grades were good enough probably. And she's passionate about the subject. Maybe she is studying design. You know what was sticking in my mind is actually architecture. Um, before you even said design, just because I was like, okay, two things. One is that my son is interested in architecture, but we're going to pretend like that is not the case as we go forward in the story that will probably be adult. Also, if you're in a place that is like crumbling and maybe war torn and You like dream of rebuilding, you know? So it's like the opposite of what she has lived. Okay. So she gets into architecture school. She comes over here, she's going to school. And then what, how does she meet this guy? What is his deal? Why is he at the university? Well, the easiest way would be that he has a hit there at the university. Is he older? Are we making him older? He could pose as a professor or as a student, if he is. About maybe or late twenties, he could still pose as a student, right? He could pose as a student. He could even be a student because one of the things I'm always thinking when you have someone doing something like as intense as like the hit man is like, are they still going to do it at the end? Which like, if they are, that's fine. But if they're not, you kind of need an exit. That is. Meaningful to them. You don't want them to just be like, yeah, I quit that to do nothing, you know, so that could be his actual passion and he just does the hit man stuff on the side or maybe his family. is kind of in the mob or something or just does organized crime and they want him to go into that but he is really passionate about something else yes i do usually write older heroes but i actually have this vibe that this guy might be younger than my usual heroes which even early late 20s would still be younger but but he might even be younger than that like because he really was forced into that role you know and so maybe he's trying to escape the life Yeah, but it is not easy. Yeah, they have that in common. They're both trying to escape a life that they were supposed to live. And they're both escaping it. So that's something they have in common. Ooh, I wonder if they also have this in common. What if, because I do love that your mom is so supportive of you, but I, I wonder what if her mom isn't, what if her mom is like, why would you leave everything you need here? Are you saying that sometimes when kids want something different than what their parents had, they take it as an insult, you know? Yep. And they're really traditional in that part of the country to that part of the world. Yeah. So it could be that they're both defying their parents by doing this college thing. So how do they meet them. If he's trying to escape. It might be cute if they meet in some sort of, like, other way. Oh yeah, they could meet beforehand and then, like, they could meet while she is out and he is on a hit or something. And then later, they part ways and then he thinks that he's never going to see her again and then she ends up being in his class. Yeah. I like that. She could just be out and, like, on, like, a college party or something or just a regular party. So it's not because I don't think he would do a hit when it is like in the college or around it. Right. So it should be something else. Maybe. So, or maybe just like a restaurant or someplace, something random. Yeah, it could be that. Like she has a job, maybe, you know, to help pay for her stuff, though. I don't know if you can actually on a student visa. There's like rules about that, but yeah, there's probably have to do research at this point, but we're not going to do that. We just say she gets paid under the table. Oh, yeah, she gets paid under the table. Not quite legal, but hey, it's fiction. Yes. Yes. So, she does that, and basically, like, if a place is paying under the table, maybe they're a little bit more likely to have shady stuff happening there. I don't know. Yeah, for sure. So, something shady happens. Maybe the restaurant is owned by his family. Oh my god. Oh my god. Cause that would be a good twist. I like that. I do like it. Actually, I like it a lot, because Like maybe by his brother or someone in his family or his parents or something that own the restaurant and it's like, it's a real restaurant, but they're also laundering money in there. Yes, even if it's not his family specifically, they're part of this organized crime unit and they talk about their stuff there, which means that eventually she's probably going to oversee or overhear something she shouldn't. Yes, for sure. Okay. So they meet and she sees him doing something shady there. To be honest with you, I'm not sure it has to be a hit. Like she could, it doesn't have to be as intense as watching him shoot someone, especially since like, this is a, I feel like, like they're both a little bit younger. And so like, it could even be something where this guy just like goes into the room and never comes out or something like, like a guy comes in. She has the sense that someone was hurt and she's feeling nervous about it. Yeah, I like that. Or maybe even someone gets sort of beat up, which is bad, but like not all the way killing someone. Yeah. And so she's nervous, but still needs the money and can't get a regular job because of the, the rule. So she is. Torn. And then class starts and bam, they're in the same class together. The mysterious man shows up and maybe she even thinks that he is following her or she believes he doesn't even belong there. Oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think what he should be is something about engineering because they would have to take eventually some kind of classes together, but it's also not the exact same interests as hers. So they end up in this engineering class together. It's like the first class. So she assumes he's just sitting there to like intimidate her or hurt her. And so as soon as the class ends, like the bell rings or whatever it is that signals the end of class, she like runs and he knows who she is, recognizes her. And he's like, gonna chase her just because he's like, Of course. Maybe he wants to talk to her, maybe he's intrigued, but like, either way, he's like not planning on her. He's not there to hurt her. Like it was as much a surprise to him. And so he catches her and she's like, don't hurt me. I'm not going to say anything. And he's like, I wasn't going to hurt you. And she's going to be like, then why were you following me? And he's going to be like, because I just wanted to make sure you weren't going to tell anyone about what you saw. And she's, and so they kind of agreed to like, not, no one's going to tell anything. That's what they agreed on first with me. That's how they get together. And then maybe they meet each other again or later in the, in the class, they kind of get closer and then his family finds out that she saw something she was not supposed to. I think they got assigned a partner project or, oh yeah, that too. Of course, that's, that's, that's the easiest one. I like it. So they like meet at the library, which is a very safe space. But then maybe when it's, Empty. They like have a kiss. Mm hmm. Something like that. Because I think what's cool about the library is that they can be more themselves there because they're out of their, their backgrounds, you know, they're always a good, always a good spot for the library. So, and then maybe the next time. Like they, Oh, they're like, we have to meet one more time. But somehow the library is closed. One of them has to say, how about my place? Like she's probably staying in a dorm or something like that, or, or maybe a cheap apartment, depending on like what her scholarship situation is. It would either be in the dorms or have like a really cheap shared apartment or something like with roommates. Probably. Yeah. Oh, you know what I really would like is. her to have a cheap apartment and have it be in such a bad part of town that he's like, why are you living here? You should not be here. Yeah. And like post some guy on her or, or he posts himself on her in front of her apartment and watches her sometimes. Yeah. Or, and someone, maybe a guy, like maybe she lives with girls. But they don't really see each other. They don't know each other. They just kind of like go in and out and, you know, sleep and leave. But it could be that like the next door apartment or a couple doors down, this guy has kind of been a creep and he keeps like making comments to her. And so she could just like offhand, tell him. And then the next day she comes home and that guy has a black eye. Yes. I like that. And he's like, immediately leaves when she, when she sees him. And so. Doesn't even look at her anymore. Just cast his eyes down to the ground. So it's obvious that, um, there was something going on. And so she's torn because it's like kind of hot to be like protected, but also this just like really proves her fear about the whole violence thing. And maybe she has, like, some kind of, like, experience with violence in her country. Maybe she had, like, a bad boyfriend or something in her country where, where he was violent. So it's very important for her that she gets away from that. Or maybe her stepdad was violent. In her family. Yeah. Or even her regular father like it. And the thing is her, you know, she could really be trying to tell her mother, like you should, you should leave him. And he's like, and she's like, no, not only will I not leave him, but you should have a marriage like this. This is what good women do. This is your life. So that's rough. So she's like, yeah, I don't want to be with a guy who talks with his fists. Exactly. They're always nice in the beginning. Oh yes. So, that probably worries her too, that the other shoe is going to drop later. Yeah. So maybe she goes back to class cause she has to anyway, and they do their presentation and it goes really well, but then she kind of like won't meet his eyes and he knows something is wrong and he confronts her, you know, they kind of have a little moment about it where he, where she calls him out for being violent. And he admits it and is like, yeah, I'm trying not to live this life, but I was born into it. And also I'm not sorry for hitting that creep, you know? Yeah. And even maybe saying I would do it again, right? But he has to prove to her that he would never hurt her, right? Even in the future, which how he's going to prove that is most likely what you had said, which is that she's going to go to work. And maybe he's even been telling her, like, you should quit. Don't work there. I'll give you money if you need money. And she's like, no, like, I'm not just going to take your money. That's. You know, I'm working for it and he's like, it's not safe. And she's like, then me, then why are you going there? You know, like they just don't, they aren't able to see eye to eye on this. So she goes to work and then that's when she sees, I also think like his family should be a little bit like under attack in terms of, it raises the standard for why his family wants to keep him in the business. Like they would always want to keep him in the business anyway. Right. But now they're like, no, we really need you at this time. Maybe like, uh, not even like another family, maybe like the DA's office is onto them or something. Mm-Hmm. And they're looking for witnesses for some stuff, and that's why they're ex, they're especially watching out for her or in general for people who have like any kind of dirt on them or something. Yeah. And having a lot of meetings, some that don't end well. Yeah, right. Like if they're like concerned that someone might be talking, they might say, why don't you meet us at the restaurant just to talk and then the person gets disposed of. Yeah. And then at one point, maybe even they could like give them an ultimatum. Of some sorts and maybe even in front of her where they're like, okay, you either take care of her now, or maybe just like they're he's supposed to, like, beat her up or something. And he says, no, I would never do that. So they've caught her. Maybe I think it also makes sense because the thing is, they still need someone to actually just, like, bust the tables and stuff. So they can't be mad at everyone who works there. It could be that maybe she snoops, like maybe, yeah, maybe she goes to a room to her curiosity is getting the better of her and she knows maybe there is like a meeting room in the back or downstairs where they're supposed to never go like everybody knows you never go there. Yeah, she snoops down there. Yeah, and she's found and they're like, go take care of her, you know, and he, well, the thing is he can't just say no, he's got to get them out of it. Yeah. So maybe he'll just take her somewhere. Right. He's like, okay, yeah, I'm going to go dispose of her. Let's go. And he's a taker to just his place and lock her up for a little bit, make sure she doesn't leave until he figures out what he's going to do. Right, so it would have to be a place and not like his regular place would have to be someplace like a special hideout type of place. Yeah, safe house. She'll be so afraid of him because she's assuming and he will try to convince her that he's not going to hurt her, but she'll also be like, then why can't you let me go? Yeah, he'll be like, because then they'll obviously see that you are still here and you'll be in danger. It's kind of, it's a little bit of an unsolvable problem. I mean, at that point, they also can like, But now they have privacy. They can have their steam. Exactly. But like, force proximity. Force proximity, like, I wonder if it happens kind of because she's already afraid and you have all this adrenaline. And she's like, let me go, let me out of here. And he says no. And she kind of just sort of like fights him and he holds her back, but she, he can't, he's not going to hurt her back. Right. And so like that physicality just turns into passion, you know? So to solve it, maybe he thinks he can talk to his father and like convince him that she is no danger at some point. Yeah. How is he going to do that? He could. I do wonder if, because the interesting thing is that even though he wants to leave that life behind, like he hasn't fully left abandoned, his family can't abandon. There's part of him that's still, yeah, he wants to leave, but he also loves his family on the other hand. Yeah. Even if they're bad. Right. So this is quite a conundrum. Yeah. Well, the only thing I can think of is right now that the dad. Who would be like traditional. He would be like, well, why do you have something for this girl or something? And it would be pretty fast, but he could be like, well, then you have to marry her. That's the only way that you can save her. If she's actually part of the family, but maybe that would happen. Not too quick. Maybe like later, not like, right? The 2nd, maybe like. A few chapters down. Yeah, I guess that will happen in between. So he's going to go to his father and hope that his father will understand. Maybe 1st, he'll just say, you know, I didn't kill her, but she's not going to tell and the data is going to be or, or the other way. The other less. Mary G way would be to tell them she has to do something. For them. So she is part of it too. Maybe like a, some kind of initiation or something to the family that she is part of it. That maybe not marriage right away, but like she would have to, I don't know, do something. She probably can't beat somebody up, but maybe Get steal some information from somebody or planned a bug at some at a police station or or something do something that they need somebody to do something that's not affiliated with them. So, yeah, I also do something right. I also think. Well, so there's one other option, but it depends on how bad we want to make his family and his dad. Yeah. And so that would be that, that ultimately he does either turn on his dad and puts them both kind of into witness production. Yeah. That's an option. Which I think might not be that bad. Like neither of them have, like, they're both in the process of cutting the ties. You know what I mean? It could be a solution that works even better than having to, because Then if they may get married or something, then they're both end up where they're not supposed to, where they're not one of where they don't want to be. Right. Well, the other thing is, it could be kind of both. Like maybe, maybe the guy does have feelings for his dad. Like he loves his dad, even though he knows his dad does bad things. And maybe his dad has maybe a, some sense of honor that we, as the reader might sympathize with or understand a little bit. And that's what the son, like what likes about him, but it could be that there's infighting in the family and maybe like his more violent cousin ends up killing the father in order to take over. In which case he'd be more likely to want to just basically knock and. And make a deal for witness protection, because now if his dad is gone, then that's he's there's no one he wants to protect. Yeah, that's a good idea too. And then they can do whatever they want basically later on, they can both continue going their path. Yeah, and it also could have been that like, maybe when she was found. The dad was a little bit more inclined to believe her when he's, when she said she didn't hear anything or she's not going to tell him maybe it was like the more violent brother that has this idea of like burn everything down. You know, everyone has to go. And that's like ultimately not really sustainable basically like so he will be grieving his dad. And in a way she'll be grieving her mom because she can't ever talk to her again. Do you know if in witness protection, do they get like one last call? You know, I don't know. I don't think so. I could ask my husband. He knows stuff like that. That's probably, I mean, I don't, I don't think so. I don't think they get a last call. But yeah, I don't even think about it. If she's in witness protection, she couldn't contact anybody from her past anymore. Yeah, it's possible that even if they don't officially do it, that she might just like sneak it and do it, you know, like, yeah, of course, they can always sneak it in, or at least send like a letter or something, just sound like, oh, maybe her and her mom had a certain thing that like, maybe they didn't get along. They didn't agree with how she should live her life, but they had something that they agreed on. And so that they both enjoyed, like, maybe it was something to do with church and like, maybe her mom loved church and she loved looking at how churches were built or something like that. And so she sends her, her mom, these like postcards and just so that her mom will kind of like know that she's okay, even though they can't, but in a way it's almost better because like they were, I think we would have wanted to see a phone call with them where like, we could actually see what it's that they were never going to come to terms, you know, they were never going to understand each other. Yeah, they can have a final phone call, even if it's not technically allowed. Yeah. Okay, so he does this, and the one thing I will say that's sad about it is that I do think you can't, like, If you're in witness protection, you can't necessarily, like, do what you love, you know, like, if you're a doctor, yeah, you go into witness protection, you can't just go be a doctor because then they'll be looking for doctors with your skill set and stuff, you know, plus you'd have to forge like a whole, Identity that would be much harder. So you think if they go to a different school, they could still couldn't do the same thing because they were like looking for them. I mean, I guess we can do what we want, you know, yeah, I don't know what maybe he went to school. Maybe they didn't even know he went to school. Maybe he's trying to get out and they didn't even know like his family didn't even know. That he went to school for something. Yeah. He could have done it like on the down low. I mean, he could still tell them, like, I want to get out and stuff. They knew that he was, you know, but they didn't know that he was actually going to school and stuff. He never like told him his actual dreams. So then they, they wouldn't know. Yeah. Cause he's sneaky, sneaky. Yeah. I think we can just, we can fuzz over that detail. Like they go to school. They, they go to school at the end. And she becomes an architect and he becomes an engineer. Yes. And together they have some kind of business together. Yeah. So they can work together and do everything together. That's what I do with my husband. We do everything together. Yeah. And I feel like, well, I feel like they were both raised in religious families. I mean, I feel like the mob is often, yeah, they're usually Catholics. And then she was raised Catholic. It could be that they do regular work. They do commercial work, but that they will like build a church together. That's like their homage. And they can name it after her mom. Oh yeah. Yeah. Her mom can have a saint's name, so it can be like saint, whatever. The name. Okay. I love it. So we did it. That's really what it would be, right? Like they just are like together in this new world. And then we probably like fast forward in an epilogue, get to see them in a building or the building. And maybe her rubbing her baby belly. Cause I like to, I like to put them babies in there at the end. I know. I was like, well, it's a church. I mean, they could be the baby could be getting baptized, you know? Yeah. I also was envisioning this like stained glass could be sometimes like they're kind of dark and bloody. And so like, it could be symbols or like scenes from the Bible, but also scenes from his memory, you know, that would be cool. I like that stained glass idea. You know, it's interesting too. He's kind of like Judas, the betrayer, but he's also the story. That's true. We'd have to name him Jude now. Yeah. Yeah. We never gave him names. We never gave him a name. That's what I'm saying. I know how I do my names. I have my sticky on my phone, like the notepad on my phone. And every time I hear a name that I like, I write it on there. And then when I write a book, I go there and I pick from the list. I love that. I literally, yeah, I'll just be on baby name websites. I would want to, that's what I did before. Every time I like was supposed to pick a name, you know, then you can't think of a name. There's a million names, but no name comes to mind. So that's when I started the list on my phone. I just have a boy and a girl list with names. So a lot of my names come from my son's soccer team. Every time I hear a nice name, I'm like, Oh, okay. I like this name. And then I write it down on my list. And then when I use it, I delete it. I love it. Yeah. I think she's going to be, she's got to be like a saint because her mom's religious and something traditional that's from that area. I've actually been really into giving heroines like old fashioned names. Lately, but also kind of random. So yeah, we'll give her a saint name and then we'll give him the name Jude because I would just now that I have thought about it. It's already set in stone. I know. Okay. So we actually did the epilogue, which is one of my questions. The other question is what would we call it? I'm terrible at names. I'm terrible at names. It could be something about hiding secrets. Yeah. Because what's cool about that is that they hide in the end, really, like that's their Yeah. So maybe like, hidden in darkness. Hidden in darkness. There's also like, blood, and then there's also like, building things. Oh, yeah. Hmm. It could be hidden in darkness, though. Yeah. I think that that would work. Maybe we could put something with buildings in, like, the, the tagline. Yes. We could do like, hidden in darkness, and then the tagline could be like, building love. That's a stupid tagline. I mean, actually, well, actually, what about it's only slightly different, but what about hidden in shadows? Because buildings and buildings have darkness too, but I just feel like it's more building. Yeah. Okay. Shadows. All right. And so we did it. We have written the story. We have told the story. I have one final question for you, which is if a reader liked this story, What book of yours should they start with? Probably Quorium University. That's the favorite, my favorite story I've ever written. And it's my bestseller too. So other people like it too, I guess. Nice. Perfect. Yeah, that's the one that's been like translated into like a bazillion languages. Okay, maybe not a bazillion, but a bunch of languages. But many. The Hebrew version just published. I'm like, I was super excited about that. Do you do your own German translations? I mean, I don't translate them myself. I do have a translator, but I do them myself. I self publish in German and French. So why don't you translate them yourself? Honestly, like I said, I came to America when I was 18 and I don't speak German over here. Just we do Sunday family chat. That's the only time I still speak German. I don't speak German to my kids. I know I'm terrible. I should have. My mom literally hates me for it, but it was so hard because they had like speech problems when they were younger too. It was just so hard to talk German to them when my husband doesn't know any German. So he always felt like left out, but yeah, anyways, the gist of that story is that my German is not that great anymore. It's matter of fact, when I go home to visit people that don't know me, they'll actually ask me where I'm from. Cause I have a, like an American accent. Now it will go away after a few, it will go away after a few days. Like one time back in Germany. It usually takes like two days and I'm back in the saddle, but, uh, yeah, when I first, it's, it's really hard and I forget words all the time, especially when, you know, when I talk to my families on Sunday, it's like, you know, always kind of the same, like, Hey, how are you? How are the kids? You know, how is everybody and what have you done? But then like, I couldn't remember mailbox the other day because like, I never, you know, I never use the German word for mailbox anymore. So I'm like, I just couldn't. I'm like, it's just gone out of my brain. It's not there anymore. The word has just disappeared with along with tons of other words. So do you read your translations, though? Are you like, Oh, that is interesting. I do like, it's funny because when I format them, I kind of sometimes get sucked in because it's interesting to read it in another language. Yeah. So sometimes I get sucked in and I read a little bit of it. Yeah. Yeah, I think it's weird and every time when I read my book that I read haven't read in a long time. I did one book that I actually extended I wrote like an extended extent or two extra chapters for it. So I had to read the book again, and have you ever read one of your old books again, after a while. It's like so weird but I'm like. Ooh, I read, I did that? That's really good. Normally, yeah, because normally when I write, and then like I read after it right away, I'm always like, okay, it's fine. Like, I'm never like, oh, it's great. But when I read my older stuff, I'm like, Oh, that's actually pretty good. I'm like, proud of myself that I, that I wrote it. Yeah, I am the same way. So when I was doing the professor, I have written one of my very earliest stories was a professor student story. And so I was like, well, it just makes sense to revamp it. And, and then my, my PR person convinced me to change the tense from third person to first person. And I knew it would be horrible. And it was. But I did it, but as I was doing it, I was like, yeah, there was a lot of stuff that was really beginner about it, but there was also a lot that was really cool. And I could see how free I was with it compared to now. So that was actually inspiring because I was like, wow, this actually turned out really well and people liked it. So what, why did I get so it's hard when you've been doing it for a long time, because What everyone's going to think and yeah, all that for sure, they should read a university series. I'm going to put that into the King of Corium. It's the first one in the Corium University series. Okay, it's a trilogy. Okay, perfect. Love trilogies. And so I'm going to put the link in the show notes so that everyone can just like click down and click over and get it wherever they want. That's great. And everyone will get to go read that. Thank you so much, Cassie. This was really fun. That was really fun. I enjoyed that a lot. Yay. Thank you so much for listening to Story Time with Sky. I hope you enjoyed the story we crafted this week. Please subscribe so you don't miss a new episode and leave a review so that other listeners can find our show. We always put links for any books we discuss as well as books by the guest author in the show notes, so you can definitely find something new to read. And if you want to help choose our romance adventure, be sure to join our Facebook group, Storytime with Skye. That's where we gather suggestions and poll our readers just like you. To find out what our next story will be. Thank you for being part of the story. Welcome to the story. It's story Time With Sky. You can fall in, you cry. It's story time with it's story time with.