- Oh my gosh
- Um, I'm such a fan.
I'm so, have y'all ever met?
- No.
- No, but I'm, but I'm in love.
- Only in my dreams.
- Yeah, exactly.
- I know y'all both look really rock and roll right now.
So I'm just loving the vibe
that you're portraying right now, but...
- Oh my gosh, we're going like the best funeral ever.
- We planned it, yeah.
- The most rock and roll funeral ever.
Um, you started writing when you were on Glee,
but I heard that nobody really knew that you were writing.
- No, because I was always really
kind of secretive about it.
Like I would write, you know, in sets that weren't being
used while we were shooting.
And I remember we were doing this huge obnoxious world tour
at one point and I would...
- I really liked it.
- It was, it was..
(laughing)
It was, it was, yeah.
And I would like, I would crawl underneath the stage
and like I would write like during the show and
after the show and before the show and yeah, it was
it was a crazy time cuz like we'd, we'd go out, we'd sing
"Don't Stop Believin'" and I'd, I'd go, I'd write
down a sentence.
I'd then go strap on a leotard
do the single lady dance and then, then run back out.
- Just like a normal day that ends in "y".
- Right, a Tuesday.
- That's cool though.
I like the idea of creating
while you're doing something but it's different.
I love that people are that creative and can create that.
- Thank you.
- It's very cool.
- Thank you so much.
- This is the 10th anniversary of the Land of Stories.
So for people who haven't read the books,
what are they about?
- So in a nutshell, they're about a pair of brother
sister twins named Alex and Connor.
And they inherit a magic storybook that takes them
into the fairy tale world.
And over the course of the series they have adventures
with all the fairy tale characters we know and love
and characters from classic literature and also characters
in worlds from their own creative writing.
And along the way they help each other mourn
the loss of their father.
And so there's been six books in the main series
and I just finished writing the prequel series
about their grandparents, which was three books.
- I love a prequel.
- Yeah, and me too.
It's easy.
- Yeah. I love a prequel more than a sequel.
- I do too.
- Yeah.
- I like, I like figuring out like how
people got where they did.
- I'm like, wait, we're gonna figure
out what happened and why it got there.
I think that's so, so clever.
- Yeah, it was a lot of fun to write.
- Thank you so much.
Like Chris, this is an amazing book.
I just wanted to say that because it really is cool
like reading with my kids and like really enjoying it.
- Oh, I'm, I'm so happy you enjoy it.
- It's, it's so good and it's such an interesting thing
to go from being loved as like this character
and people know you in a different light to
know you also have this whole other talent going on.
- Oh, thank you know, I'm just so fortunate
that I was I was given the opportunities to,
to, to do all this stuff.
So I'm, I'm very, very lucky.
- Well, I'm gonna tell you, I we don't, we can edit this
out cuz I know we're outta time, but I actually heard
of your book whenever I was, I was working
through like deals like, of like what I was gonna do.
Cause I wanted to write children's books, whatever.
And I, and I did, and one of the companies I met
with was like, oh my God, there's this
there's this artist we love that we've worked
with and he's actually...
And they introduced me in that meeting to your series.
- Oh my gosh.
- It wasn't even like in a store.
They literally were like, hey
there's this thing you might be interested.
And I literally read The Wishing Spell like right then.
- Oh my gosh.
- And I thought it was just so good.
So I just wanted you to say like
- Please don't cut that out.
- No, I just, no, but I just wanted, I wanted to tell you
like your team loves what you're doing as well.
- Oh thanks, yeah. It's really great. Thank you.
- Yeah. Well, the 10th anniversary edition
of The Land of Stories, The Wishing Spell is out
now complete with new illustrations and maps
which is exciting and everyone is going home with a copy.
I love it. And speaking of putting pen to paper,
I have some exciting news.
Our season long partner Pilot Pen is once again
hosting their $100,000 G2 Overachievers Grant
and the $15,000 G2 Overachiever Student Grant.
A true overachiever is someone who goes above
and beyond their everyday responsibilities to
improve their community and the world.
Pilot wants to honor those overachievers
and give them the recognition and money they deserve.
Handwritten nominations for both grants
must be submitted by December 31st, 2022.
And next year the finalists might be featured right here
on the show.
We love this, head to g2overachievers.com
to find out how to apply.
Don't miss out on this opportunity.
You have no idea how you can impact someone's lives.