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[0:00] Mark-Eugene Garcia: Hello, and welcome to the Drama Book Show. My name is Mark-Eugene Garcia. Tonight on the Drama Book Show, we’re stepping backstage into a world where theater life and murder mystery collide. Our guest is playwright, lyricist, screenwriter, and novelist Matthew Greene, whose book There’s No Murder Like Show Murder takes us into the backstage chaos of the Eastbrook Playhouse, where the costume shop head Tasha Weaver finds her theater thrown into turmoil when a notoriously difficult leading man is murdered mid-production. What follows is a cozy mystery wrapped in the rhythms of a working theater, a tight-knit community, financial pressure, backstage rivalries, and a community suddenly forced to become detectives when their stage becomes a crime scene.

But this conversation isn’t just about whodunit. We talk about the shift from playwriting to fiction, and how the stillness of the pandemic opened up a new storytelling path for Matthew. We dig into what makes a cozy mystery feel different, less about brutality and more about people, relationships, and the fragile ecosystem that keeps a theater alive when everything starts to fall apart. At its heart, this episode is about theater families, the ones we’re born into, and the ones we build in dressing rooms, costume shops, rehearsal halls, and the late-night strike crews. It’s about the invisible labor that holds production together, and the unexpected ways art becomes community. We get into craft, how Matthew builds stories, how he moves between genres, and how he balances darker theatrical writing with stories that lean towards joy, humor, and comfort.

Along the way, there’s talk of dreamcasting, cats in rehearsal rooms, and the strange truth that sometimes the most honest way to look at the world is through a mystery. And the strange truth that sometimes the most honest way to look at a world is through a mystery. The conversation is moderated by actress Geneva Carr, whose own journey through theater, Broadway, and television brings a deep understanding of what it means to find your life in the arts, often in unexpected ways. And just like any good backstage story, this one is about more than what happens on stage. It’s about what holds everything together when the lights come up. So settle in, because there’s no murder like show murder, and the show is starting now.

[2:38] Geneva Carr: I would add to that. Thank you for that introduction. I’m also a childless cat. So I would like—and I already spilled that. It’s so dramatic. I would love to introduce a dear friend and a fabulous playwright, Matthew Greene. Matthew is not only a playwright, he is a lyricist, a writer, and as of today, I hope you get this fantastic book. His play, Thousand Pines, premiered at the Westport Country Playhouse. A Good Standing was featured at the United Solo Theater Festival. Other works of his include Gregorian, Adam and Steve in the Empty, Chief, Job Well Done, and Bread of Affliction. You write great titles. He has developed his work at esteemed venues all over the country, and he has won the Stiles and Drew Prize in 2020.

Currently, he was just commissioned by the Westport Country Playhouse for another play. We’ll talk about that later, possibly, at the end. And his first novel, There’s No Murder Like Show Murder, is here right now. So Greene, a BMI Musical Theater Workshop member, also teaches around the city, and he is a director of a non-profit called Opening Act, which is an organization that brings theater to the city. We have some Opening Actors out there if I weren’t there. So, please, with no further ado, Mr. Matthew Greene.

[4:17] Matthew Greene: You took my book. I heard it got a little wet. It’s well-loved. Matthew, I know you as a playwright. I’ve known Matthew for about eight years. I have worked on several of your plays. He is prolific. The amazing thing about you is you write light and dark.

[4:43] Matthew Greene: Yeah, just like life.

[4:45] Geneva Carr: And now you have written a book. How did that come about?

[4:56] Matthew Greene: So there was a pandemic, and then theater went on pause. And so all of these lovely things from that bio that I just was blushing my way through were all put on hold, and I just needed somewhere to put my creative energy. Simultaneously, I was just watching a lot of Murder, She Wrote.

[5:18] Geneva Carr: Oh, you loved that.

[5:19] Matthew Greene: Yeah, yeah.

[5:20] Geneva Carr: That’s interesting.

[5:21] Matthew Greene: So watching a lot of Murder, She Wrote, wishing I was at a small-town theater in rehearsals like I was supposed to be.

[5:29] Geneva Carr: Well, you were supposed to be. Was something put on hold?

[5:33] Matthew Greene: Supposed to be, yeah, working on a new project. And it went, yeah, everything for all of us. Everything went on hold.

[5:39] Geneva Carr: Why did you decide not to write a play and to write a novel? What pulled you to do that?

[5:45] Matthew Greene: It was the challenge. It was, we all tried new things. It was a time when we were all thinking like, I got time.

[5:50] Geneva Carr: You had a terrific writing situation at home too, that you’re telling me about.

[5:54] Matthew Greene: Yeah, my partner and I both, we were in this two-bedroom apartment, so every day we would, when we were finished with work or whatever, we would just go into our separate rooms and both work on novels. And so he’s very different. He wrote a fantasy novel, and I wrote—

[6:08] Geneva Carr: Was that his first novel?

[6:09] Matthew Greene: This guy. No, it wasn’t. He wrote a novel when he was in high school. He’s an overachiever. He’s, yeah, he’s one of those.

[6:14] Geneva Carr: Did you show him this book while you were writing it?

[6:20] Matthew Greene: No, he wanted to wait until, okay, so at first he said, I’ll wait until, I’ll wait until it’s done, because it’s a mystery, and he wanted to, and then he very sweetly, when it was done, or maybe he just didn’t want to read it, he said, no, I’ll wait until it’s published, because he believed that it was going to. So he put that energy out there for us.

[6:39] Geneva Carr: Has he read it?

[6:40] Matthew Greene: He has now read it, yes. And I watched him, because, you know, that’s the nighttime routine, is we go to bed and we read, so I would just be lying there, watching him, looking at what age he was on. Poor guy.

[6:53] Geneva Carr: I kept texting Matthew when I was reading it, mentioning characters and asking for clues, and it is a whodunit. So you like Murder, She Wrote?

[7:02] Matthew Greene: Love Murder, She Wrote.

[7:03] Geneva Carr: Let me ask you about this book, because it’s set in a small theater town, I would call it, is it, where would you place Eastbrook?

[7:11] Matthew Greene: Eastbrook’s in Connecticut, in Fairfield County, Connecticut. It may or may not be inspired by a real town in Connecticut.

[7:19] Geneva Carr: Like maybe Westport?

[7:20] Matthew Greene: Maybe Westport, I don’t know, Eastbrook, Westport, it might be, but yeah, it was very inspired by the Westport Country Playhouse, where we have worked together, where we both worked and enjoyed.

[7:32] Geneva Carr: Did you like the town of Westport, as well as the people that work at the theater company? Because I thought I recognized somebody.

[7:39] Matthew Greene: So the theater company, for sure, I know you’re going to get me in trouble. People in Westport are like, who?

[7:46] Geneva Carr: The villains.

[7:48] Matthew Greene: No, but yeah, so the town also, the playhouse primarily, I think anyone who’s been to or worked at the Westport Country Playhouse will see a lot of similarities. But then the town was also, I got into this habit of, I would take these little Amtrak riding retreats myself, especially in the early creeping back into normalcy days, after the shutdown of everything.

[8:15] Geneva Carr: The trains were really not crowded at all, so it was lovely.

[8:18] Matthew Greene: Did you ride on the train or did you go somewhere?

[8:20] Matthew Greene: So I’d ride on the train and then go somewhere, but I would go to little towns, like in Connecticut or Vermont or wherever. So it’s inspired by a lot of places up in New England.

[8:28] Geneva Carr: You can feel that. You refer to it as a cozy novel. I’m not sure what that means. Can you tell me?

[8:34] Matthew Greene: Yeah, so cozy mysteries are a subset, it’s a subgenre of mystery that is heavy on, it’s light on gore and violence, language. It’s actually a lot like Murder, She Wrote. That’s usually how I describe it. Imagine Murder, She Wrote as a book. So it centers on an amateur sleuth, they’re usually not about police or law enforcement professionals of any kind. So it’s an amateur sleuth, usually a young woman who’s really enmeshed in this community. But what I really love about them is they’re about relationships and about people and it’s about a strong community that is disrupted by some violent thing and then this person at the center of the sleuth brings the community back together, heals the community. And I find that a lot more interesting than just straight up crime stories. It’s all about people and relationships and healing whatever rift has happened in that community.

[9:35] Geneva Carr: I guess I’ve never heard that term before and I didn’t know that I missed the F-bombs.

[9:42] Matthew Greene: I didn’t even notice but it is exactly that. It doesn’t go back in time but it goes to a place of intimacy because these characters are so well drawn. I started falling in love with one of them and I actually had to write you a story.

[10:00] Geneva Carr: And so did I.

[10:01] Matthew Greene: Because I’m falling in love with Bruno. I don’t know what’s happening.

[10:04] Geneva Carr: And you said, no I’m sorry. And then there’s another character. Can I say their names? Am I loud? I don’t know.

[10:09] Matthew Greene: Yeah, yeah. They’re in the first couple chapters.

[10:12] Geneva Carr: Now let me ask you. This feels like it could have a future. And I, listen, I only see the eyes of television so I want to do it on television. But have you thought of developing it in other ways? Have you thought of writing a sequel?

[10:28] Matthew Greene: Yeah, yeah. So the sequel is written.

[10:31] Geneva Carr: What?

[10:33] Matthew Greene: It was a long pandemic. So the sequel and the prequel. So the show must go wrong, which comes before this one. And then a chorus line up, which comes after. We’re all sort of part of this writing marathon that happened. And so tell your friends to buy the book in book number two. Come back.

[10:55] Geneva Carr: Yes, yes, yes. Wow.

[10:57] Matthew Greene: So yeah, so as far as the series of the backstage mysteries, there’s just nothing but ideas for different things in the future. But then, yeah, I would love to see it adapted for the screen, for the small or large screen. But I see through the eyes of television too.

[11:12] Geneva Carr: I’ll help you.

[11:14] Matthew Greene: Yeah, yeah. We’ll work on it.

[11:16] Geneva Carr: Now let me ask you. So the main character, can we say who she is?

[11:19] Matthew Greene: Tasha, yes. Yeah, I guess I should give like a little synopsis of the story. There’s No Murder Like Show Murder tells the story of Tasha Weaver, who’s the costume shop manager at the Eastbrook Playhouse, a small town playhouse in Connecticut.

[11:34] Matthew Greene: And her world is turned upside down when the leading man of their upcoming production of Annie Get Your Gun is shot center stage. And it's up to her to solve the mystery to make sure that opening night can happen. I'm going to interrupt you. It's not up to her. Tasha just happens to be somebody who takes things under control. It's true. She decides it's up to her. Nobody wants her to do it, but she cannot stop. She's addicted to figuring it out. Yeah, she's one of those people who knows that if she doesn't fix it, this is wardrobe people generally, if I don't fix it, then you're going to look a fool out there. So yeah, she's classic costume shop manager.

[12:20] Geneva Carr: So why did you write the lead as a woman?

[12:25] Matthew Greene: You know this because you've played a lot of them, but I usually write leads who are women. I just find women characters a lot more interesting. Yeah, I just think that I gravitate toward female protagonists a lot more. I think that the way that they navigate the world is just something that I find dramatically interesting to drill into and explore. Cozy mysteries, typically, it was also a thing in the genre. Most cozy mysteries have a female sleuth, but I think it's also, it's that thing of there's the Hardy Boys. There's a few, but the Hardy Boys, they took two Hardy Boys to do what Nancy Drew could do by herself. But I think it really is about, it's a genre that's very popular with women, and so I think that's one reason. But I think also just this idea of healing a community and being really intimately connected to a group of people, to the extent that without any like formal law enforcement training, she just can intuit and see things in a way that...

[13:33] Matthew Greene: She meets people. Yeah. And you learn in this book, you learn about why she's working there, you learn about her life. So the little bit that I know, I would really be interested in reading the prequel because we learn a little bit about why she's there. Her mother has passed away, but is her mom in the first one? I want to meet her mom.

[14:00] Geneva Carr: It's not that much of a prequel. Her mom has passed away when she was a teenager, and the Playhouse became her family. After she lost her mother, she... As it does for a lot of us, her backstage family really stepped in for that, which is why it hits her so hard when this... Not just that someone has died in the place that she loves, but also that this is a threat to this theater company's future. So yeah, her mom is not in the prequel. A lot of the prequel is, it's not a murder mystery, it's a missing person mystery, and keep an eye on the backstage mystery socials for this prequel coming at you.

[14:37] Matthew Greene: But it also is the origin story of Hilly, the box office cat.

[14:42] Geneva Carr: Oh yeah, I was going to ask you about the cover because it did a friend... I love this cat, but it's hysterical. And there is a cat in the book. Another cozy mystery hallmark is there's usually...

[14:56] Matthew Greene: Oh really? Yes, there's usually a prominent animal who provides some emotional support to the book. Solving mysteries is hard. But what's the story on this kitty on the cover?

[15:07] Matthew Greene: Oh, Bacardi's is on it. Bacardi's is in there too. Bacardi's, yes. So this cat is named Hilferdi. She is the box office cat at the Eastbrook Playhouse. She just showed up one day, sat outside the box office while the audience was arriving for the show and never left. But she becomes really attached to Tasha, partially because Tasha feeds her every day, as happens. But Tasha actually named her Hilferdi after Susan Hilferdi, who is Tasha's favorite designer, also my favorite designer. And fun fact, I sent an advance copy of the book to Susan Hilferdi, and she read it and said some very kind things, and then she sent me a signed print of Elphaba's Act 2 costume. So that's framed in the apartment now. So Hilferdi met her. I think the subject line of the email I sent was, I named a fake cat after you. You know, you'll open that email.

[16:06] Geneva Carr: I'm going to ask you, if you were to turn this into television, movie, theater, what if we cast it right now just for fun? Has anybody else read the book yet, or are we the only two?

[16:19] Matthew Greene: You're in casting. I don't think I should be. Just for fun. Yeah, some dream casting. Tasha, I'd like a new actress. Are you an actress?

[16:39] Geneva Carr: No.

[16:40] Matthew Greene: Oh shoot, you'd be so good as Tasha. A star was about to be born. But like real pure beauty, you're such a natural beauty, someone like that.

[16:47] Geneva Carr: Yeah, yeah. Okay, so Tasha's new. Let's talk about the other characters, like who I'd like to play. I want to hear your ideas.

[17:00] Matthew Greene: Mrs. Garrison really spoke to me. I'm afraid I'm too old and I would have to get a facelift. Spoiler alert, Mrs. Garrison might think she's too old to play herself. You'll meet Mrs. Garrison. She's having a hard time. It wasn't really a spoiler, I promise. What's fascinating about it is it's every single character. They're not prototypes, but you draw them so vividly that they are those people. Having real crushes on two imaginary men, to have that happen is a miracle and I thank you.

[17:32] Geneva Carr: I will say, so Brandon, my partner, we're talking a lot about Brandon during this. Brandon's not here, he's making a car fly at Back to the Future. But he was, one of these nights when he was reading the book, he likes to dream cast things too. And so I looked over at his phone, he was just looking up hot Brazilian men. What's going on over there?

[17:53] Matthew Greene: Casting Bruno.

[17:55] Geneva Carr: Just casting Bruno. So he's got some options for Bruno.

[18:00] Matthew Greene: What do you think is the perfect audience for this book?

[18:04] Geneva Carr: Everybody should buy it. No, but specifically, I think there's that cross section. I actually think it's a bigger Venn diagram than we realized, the overlap is a little bigger, of theater lovers and mystery lovers. There's just something. Because you have to figure out what's happening, why it's happening, you have to understand people. The trick in this is it's so, everybody's dissected. And trust me, having read it, you are convinced it's one person, then you're convinced it's another person. And I actually texted him because I had to go to bed because I was worried it was someone I didn't want it to be. So you just, yeah.

[18:43] Matthew Greene: I hope it turned out well for you.

[18:47] Geneva Carr: It did, it did. I can't wait to read the next one. So yeah, I think the perfect reader is someone, I think about myself when I was writing, I wrote it because it was something that I wished I could read. I think that's why I end up writing anything that I write, is it something I want to see, or I want to read myself. And so I think someone who's experiencing that same thing, just wanting some comfort, wanting some escapism, someone who takes that, who has a reference point for what it feels like to be backstage, and someone who loves theater, but it has all that. Agatha Christie lovers to see theater.

[19:17] Matthew Greene: Agatha Christie was a theater lover herself. She's got the longest running play ever.

[19:24] Geneva Carr: So are they going to, where else are you promoting this? Are you signing in other venues?

[19:29] Matthew Greene: Yeah, actually. Okay. So speaking of Westport, I'll be up in Westport at the, so the playhouse and the Westport library are partnering on an event a week from today. So I'll be up there and then hitting up just places along the way. After that, I'll be in Little Rock, Arkansas, then Sacramento, California, Elk Grove, California, and then Nashville. So that'll be fun, going to a convention up in Nashville with this little guy.

[19:56] Geneva Carr: So not drama books, but like Barnes & Noble type books, or a local bookstore.

[20:01] Matthew Greene: Yeah. So Barnes & Noble in Little Rock and Sacramento.

[20:03] Geneva Carr: Maybe you can put a plug in to go see some theater.

[20:06] Matthew Greene: Exactly. That's the other thing, is I hope that the book inspires people to go see some theater, to support their local theaters.

[20:14] Geneva Carr: It does draw a picture. Most of us are probably in the theater, so we live here, but it makes you see how many people it takes to put a show on, what it means to the community. And I hate saying it, but economically it makes sense. Because in this story, the Eastbrook Theater, there are restaurants nearby. There's so many other businesses that collaborate together to make a town.

[20:39] Matthew Greene: Yeah.

[20:40] Geneva Carr: And they employ a lot of people.

[20:42] Matthew Greene: They employ a lot of people. They bring in people from all over the state who want to see this theater. It's true of all of these regional theaters, is that so much of not just the cultural life and identity of a town, but also the economics of that town are wrapped up in it. One thing that was really important to me in writing this, so I don't know if anyone else feels this way, but it really gets on my nerves when I see portrayals of theater in fiction, of professional theater in fiction, and it doesn't feel real. It doesn't feel accurate. And it feels a lot like people are writing about a high school drama club, but with adults in it. And really, so you'll have the tropes of this stagehand who wishes he was an actor. That's not what professional theater is. These are professional people.

[21:35] Geneva Carr: I'm really excited because of Westport. I hope I can go because I love that department so much. I love Lisa. There are so many characters that work there, and those theaters are people who stay there for years, as we both know. And they're professionals, and they're excellent at what they do, and they keep it running.

[21:58] Matthew Greene: Just to switch gears because we're running out of time, I want to talk about what you're going to do next. We know you've got these two books. Do we have to buy these for our friends and for Christmas?

[22:07] Geneva Carr: Absolutely, yeah. So Christmas presents, sit on your social media. But are you working on anything else that you want to talk about?

[22:16] Matthew Greene: Yeah, there's Any Writers got all these irons in the fire, so I am working on a different mystery series altogether that is forthcoming, so follow on the socials. Keep in the loop.

[22:26] Geneva Carr: Playwriting or novelist?

[22:28] Matthew Greene: Novelist, yeah.

[22:29] Geneva Carr: Oh my god, you got the bug.

[22:31] Matthew Greene: Yeah, moving forward with a new one. So there's that, but I also, yeah, there's a couple of musicals I have in development.

[22:37] Geneva Carr: There's one particular one I want you to talk about.

[22:39] Matthew Greene: Yeah, there's one called Widows that Geneva was in a reading of earlier this year that I'm writing with Keira Stone that is very exciting, so follow that one, Widows Musical on Instagram. There's a lot of social media plugs going on. So yeah, there's that musical Widows, which isn't exactly a whodunit, you know exactly who's doing it, but it's about a group of...

[22:59] Geneva Carr: Wait a minute, I want to just say, no, you know who does it, but the whodunit of the why, the where, and the what, there's a lot of reveal in that.

[23:08] Matthew Greene: To me. Yeah, I can say the premise of it because now we're just being cryptic. The premise of it is that there's it's 1950s suburban America and there's this group of widows who live in this neighborhood and are systematically killing some abusive husbands and getting the women out of these marriages. So this sort of cadre of murderous widows. And the music is amazing and there's fantastic characters and it's funny and it's dark and it's the dark and the light. I love that. Yeah. So yeah, working on widows have this other musical that's called Benny and Beta. That's a modern day Pinocchio with a robot. And yeah, that one's news to you. You didn't even tell me about that. Yeah, there's too many things.

But yeah, so working on those things. How did you manage to stay so prolific when some of us just hid our heads in the sand for the last few years? That's how I hide my head in the sand. You process different things different ways. But I think that's what kind of started me on the path of being a writer was I it just became the way that I process the world. And it was when it it just is it's not like original at all to say writing is an outlet and it gets these things out. But it really is a great way to deal with stuff that pisses you off.

[24:32] Geneva Carr: What I find interesting about the way you write is some of your work is like Thousand Pines is about something that is current and dark and painful and that we should examine. But this book, I don't know how you wrote it in the pandemic. It's in our world, but it doesn't have the weight of what we're all dealing with. So it is a dive into a pure, funner, really interesting life because the main character, this young woman, is so determined to find out what's wrong. And she cares about so many people. We end up caring about these people. And there's Bruno and Monty, you're going to fall in love. But it's so light and fun and outside of what we were all dealing with. I hope people read it because it's an engaging escape that you can't put down. I wanted to read it in a couple of days and I had to put it down because I wanted to savor it. That's how good it is. So brought over to you. Thank you very much.

[25:29] Matthew Greene: All right. Any questions?

[25:40] Audience Member: Is Tasha going to be the main character of all three?

[25:43] Matthew Greene: Yeah, Tasha, all 23. Yeah, but no, that's a made up number. So Tasha is the main character of all of them. I love Tasha. I'm not going to let her go.

[25:58] Geneva Carr: I always call her Tasha because of Tasha Lawrence.

[26:00] Matthew Greene: Oh, interesting.

[26:01] Geneva Carr: Because Tasha is Tasha. But we can have that argument later.

[26:05] Matthew Greene: Yeah.

[26:05] Geneva Carr: What was your approach because when you're writing something as complex as a novel, there's so much to think about, whether it's the subplots and all the relationships between people. But did you write the mystery first and have that as your backbone or did that come naturally within the process?

[26:24] Matthew Greene: So somewhere in between the two. So there's that dichotomy that novelists talk about. Are you a plotter or a pantser? Do you plot it out or fly by the seat of your pants? So I'm a plotter. And I think because I came from playwriting and it was just, but my apartment is just covered in index cards all the time. And I really like structure and order and like something to, it's the Mormon upbringing, but I like some rules to bump up against. But so I plotted it all out. But then as I went along, I just kept having to change the outline as always happens. But what was frustrating, so the switch from playwriting to novel writing, this is so shallow and stupid to say, but there are so many more words.

And that was, when you're in the zone as a playwright, you can knock out like five, 10 pages in a couple of hours and you're just like hearing the voices. And this is just, it just takes so much longer because, but also as a playwright, for me, I always think of writing a script as creating a blueprint that other people are going to use to build something. But a novel is not a blueprint. It has to be the whole thing. So you have to be the production designer. You have to be the actors who are making choices and you have to be, it did feel nice to finally be allowed to italicize words in dialogue, which I try not to do as a playwright, but I had to just be the voices of all the people in this.

So you have to be kind of the whole world. And I was used to not being the whole world. This is not answering the question. One thing that I did was I wrote the last two chapters first. And then I had something to get to. And that's-

[27:21] Geneva Carr: Do you rewrite a lot too?

[27:21] Matthew Greene: Yes. Yes. I'm sure the first draft of this was terrible. It was my first novel ever. It was too long in places and too lean in other places. And so yes, so much rewriting. And then the process of once I got the contract from Crooked Lane Books to publish it, I had hired a freelance editor like a year before just to get it into good shape to submit it places. But then I had editors there and I, after doing like the various passes that you do to get it ready for publication, they'll send you first like the line edits and then the proofread edits, and then they'll send you the proof pages just to make sure that there's no errors. And I couldn't stop wanting to make changes. So the team at Crooked Lane had to reach out to me and say, okay, so just so you know, this is just to catch errors in the typesetting.

Because I would write back and be like, okay, so in chapter four, I've rewritten it and we're going to do it. Because I think it's the playwright brain. Again, I'm like, it's not open yet. I can keep changing.

[29:29] Geneva Carr: Playwriting, because I've worked with you, it feels more collaborative. You've had, I can't remember the name of one director you had that I, not the Thousand Pines director, but-

[29:39] Matthew Greene: Che, Che Yu.

[29:40] Geneva Carr: Yeah, fabulous director. And you're very collaborative with your directors. You've worked with Austin, I think that's-

[29:46] Matthew Greene: Austin Pendleton.

[29:47] Geneva Carr: So is it, are you, do you feel that it's a solo work or do you feel like your team of editors is like that collaboration? How is the collaboration different, I guess is what I'm asking.

[29:59] Matthew Greene: I think it's not quite like having a director and a cast and a creative team, and it's not nearly as collaborative as that. It is really solitary in comparison. But I did enjoy finally having someone else to talk to about the book. And then it was like just all living inside my head and outside eyes. The first editor, the one that I hired, her name was Michelle Holmes, and she was great. And she pointed out some plot holes that were major that was very helpful. And they're not there anymore. Yeah, it was early on. She said, I do not understand how this happened here. And this doesn't make sense. And she, which is great, because it's those outside eyes that you, I'm so insular. I'm like, it all makes sense to me. It's all in my head. But yeah.

[30:47] Geneva Carr: Matthew is going to sign books. I hope you were able to get one. He also has gifts for everybody.

[30:54] Matthew Greene: Oh, yeah. Gifts for everyone. They're bookmarks. It's not that exciting. But yes.

[31:02] Geneva Carr: Do you have anything you want to add?

[31:04] Matthew Greene: Oh, I don't know. I really hope that people find, I just really appreciate hearing the joy that came from the process of reading this. I think that's something that we need. I think that after years of writing, and I still am, working on some darker things that are excavating the depths of human experience.

[31:28] Geneva Carr: This does it as well, though, Matthew. I am so close to Tasha, and that's why I was hoping I would meet her mother, because we get to know her in the book just from Tasha's experiences. And I feel like I know these people.

[31:42] Matthew Greene: Yeah. I don't think it's any less honest, or any less...

[31:46] Geneva Carr: Goodness, no. I mean, I think this book, I didn't even think about the lack of bad language, and no gore, and no sex.

[31:52] Matthew Greene: I did.

[31:56] Geneva Carr: I had to think about it a lot.

[31:57] Matthew Greene: This is a book you could get for a teen reader who likes mysteries. This is a book you definitely can read, because it is really engaging, and you can tune out a crying baby. I think for the holidays, this is on Nana's bookshelf immediately.

[32:12] Matthew Greene: It's very grandma friendly.

[32:14] Geneva Carr: It is. Well, my mother was crazy about mysteries at the time, so I just know that she's laughing.

[32:19] Matthew Greene: Oh, it's also in audio form.

[32:21] Geneva Carr: Oh, yeah. I am resentful that I didn't record it, but...

[32:24] Matthew Greene: Yeah. A fabulous audio book narrator named Mia Hutchinson-Shaw recorded it, and it's great. And yeah, it was weird to hear. That was one of those, because I wasn't part of that. They sent me some audition tapes, and I picked her, because she's fantastic. But that was a weird one to hear these words from someone else.

[32:44] Geneva Carr: I'm going to do that next. I'm curious.

[32:46] Matthew Greene: It's usually just me alone at my computer talking to this, them doing voices. Yeah.

[32:52] Geneva Carr: Thank you so much for coming.

[32:53] Matthew Greene: And we are back. That was inspiring for me, because I am writing a murder mystery. It's definitely not a cozy one, because there's lots of brutality in it, but it does take place in a community theater, and it's a little creepier. It involves a ghost, maybe, some Mexican heritage, which is my thing, queer stories, and a bunch of murders. But seeing someone else do it, and do it so well, has brought me such joy, and just reminds me to keep going. And that's what these events are about, is for all of the artists out there to really remember to keep going, and keep doing what you're doing, and keep putting your art in the world, and keep bringing joy, as Matthew has been doing.

[33:37] Matthew Greene: That was quite the night.

[33:38] Geneva Carr: So, our next episode is going to be on Black Contemporary Theater, where we had two amazing guests come in, Khalid Long and Aviva Neff. And we're going to delve into that next week. I'm very excited. I met them at the theater, and I'm sorry, I met them at the store, and it was just an instant connection, and I was just like, we have to do this event. So, I'm excited to bring that to you, moderated by my friend Xavier, and it's going to be great.

[34:09] Geneva Carr: So, follow us on Instagram at Dramabookshowpodcast. Follow our Eventbrite at Dramabookshop. And remember, all the books we talk about can be found here at the Dramabookshop, and so can we. And we will see you at the bookshop.