Alli Frank and Asha Youmans
Author Interview - Alli Frank and Asha Youmans
Authors of The Better Half and Boss Lady and Two Authors = One Great Book: A Guest Post by Alli Frank & Asha Youmans
About Boss Lady:
From #1 Amazon bestselling authors of THE BETTER HALF – a Mindy Book Studio Selection – comes a funny, empathetic novel about a mess of a heroine who is desperate to resolve her past so she can finally rediscover who she was always meant to be.
Meet Antonia “Toni” Arroyo. Her protective mother has outdated notions for her daughter’s life: employ her natural beauty and marry young. But Toni has wholly different aspirations.
A promising inventor and budding entrepreneur, Toni fights to keep her passions alive as a financially strapped mother of twins with a job in airport transportation services that has her going in circles. One treasured frequent passenger is elderly traveler Sylvia Eisenberg, Toni’s sage but unofficial adviser and cheerleader. When Toni meets Sylvia’s grandson, Ash, a striking venture capitalist, luck just might bend her way.
With a game-changing new business endeavor in development, Toni hustles an opportunity to pitch her idea on TV’s Innovation Nation. Toni’s unexpected challenger? Her very own recently resurfaced, self-aggrandizing not-quite-ex-husband. As Toni’s interrupted past collides with her tenuous future, she is more determined than ever to follow through on her delayed dreams. Toni’s been clinging to “maybe” for so long—it’s finally time for “absolutely.”
Author Interview - Alli Frank and Asha Youmans
About The Better Half:
After a difficult five years, at age forty-three, Nina Morgan Clarke’s time has finally arrived. With an ex-husband relocated across country, her father bouncing back after the loss of his beloved wife, and her daughter Xandra thriving at boarding school, Nina is stepping into her dream job as a trifecta: a first generation, Black, female Head of the storied Royal-Hawkins School. To mark the moment, Nina and her best friend Marisol take a long overdue girl’s trip to celebrate the second half of Nina’s life shaping up to be the best part of her life.
Read more Author Interviews.
Author Interview - Alli Frank and Asha Youmans
Author I draw inspiration from:
Steven Pressfield (Alli) Toni Morrison (Asha)
Author Interview - Alli Frank and Asha Youmans | Author I Draw Inspiration From
Favorite place to read a book:
Living room swivel chair looking at the mountains (Alli) My deck overlooking Andrews Bay (Asha)
Book character I’d like to be stuck in an elevator with:
2024:
ALLI: Jean Smart, I love “Hacks.”
ASHA: Melissa McCarthy, I love everything she does.
2023: Michelle Obama, Becoming and The Light We Carry (Alli), RuPaul, Guru (Asha)
Author Interview - Alli Frank and Asha Youmans | Book Character I’d Like to be Stuck in an Elevator With
The moment I knew I wanted to become an author:
On a bus from Sun Valley, Idaho to the Boise airport (Alli) When Alli called me from the Boise Airport with a book idea December 2018 (Asha)
Hardback, paperback, ebook or audiobook:
Hardback (Alli) Paperback (Asha)
The last book I read:
2024:
ALLI: Mad Honey by Jodi Picoult (Click here for my list of Best Jodi Picoult Books)
ASHA: Nightcrawling by ele
2023: A Likely Story by Leigh Mcmullan Abramson (Alli) Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin (Asha)
Author Interview - Alli Frank and Asha Youmans | The Last Book I Read
Pen & paper or computer:
Computer (Alli) Pen and paper (Asha)
Book character I think I’d be best friends with:
Josie Bordelon from Tiny Imperfections, our first book (Alli) Marjette Lewis from Never Meant to Meet You, our second book (Asha)
Author Interview - Alli Frank and Asha Youmans | Book Character I’d be Best Friends With
If I weren’t an author, I’d be a:
Dermatologist (Alli) Lounge singer (Asha)
Favorite decade in fashion history:
For sure the Seventies, still my style (Alli) Eighties all the way (Asha)
Place I’d most like to travel:
Hike the entire Camino Frances Route with my husband (Alli) Greece (Asha)
My signature drink:
Tea (hot) from Fortnum and Mason (Alli), Espresso martini (Asha)
Favorite artist:
Paul Gauguin's work from the time he spent in French-Polynesia (Alli) Jared Youmans, my son (Asha)
Number one on my bucket list:
I am running the New York City marathon this November, 2023 at twice the age I was the first time I ran it. Training is a lot harder at the age I am now! (Alli) Make the New York Times Best Seller List with The Better Half (Asha)
Anything else you'd like to add:
We are so proud to share that The Better Half will be brought to readers by Mindy’s Book Studio, an imprint of Amazon Publishing, to include books developed in conjunction with and curated by author, director, actor, producer, Mindy Kaling. With an eye toward celebrating emerging and diverse voices, the imprint has welcomed us along with a growing roster of talented women writers. Mindy herself had this to say about our book: “Charming, laugh-out-loud funny, and honest, The Better Half celebrates the absurdity and joy in life, and does so with an enviable grace and good heart.”
Find more from the author:
@alliandasha on FB, Insta and Twitter
website is www.alliandasha.com
Author Bio:
Author Interview - Alli Frank and Asha Youmans
Alli Frank
Alli has worked in education for over twenty years, from an overcrowded, cacophonous public high school to a pristine private girl’s school. She has been a teacher, curriculum leader, college counselor, assistant head, school co-founder, sometimes pastor, often mayor, and de facto parent therapist. A graduate of Cornell and Stanford University, Alli lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband and two daughters. She is the co-author of Tiny Imperfections, Never Meant to Meet You and The Better Half and an essayist in Moms Don’t Have Time to: A Quarantine Anthology.
Asha Youmans
The daughter of an educational pioneer and Children’s Hospital administrator, after graduating UC Berkeley Asha spent the next twenty years teaching elementary school. Asha continues to work in schools in the Pacific Northwest believing children keep her youthful, as do her husband and two sons. She is the co-author of Tiny Imperfections, Never Meant to Meet You and The Better Half.
