The Viv Lela Show

Four months ago, I quit my corporate exec job to write romantasy. Plot twist: the book was already finished — what I actually left to do was turn it into a published, sold series. When I started, it felt like standing at the base of a mountain — I couldn't see the midway point, let alone the peak.

So: how does it actually feel, four months in?

This is an honest check-in on where I am with Call of Matter — copy edits underway, Book 2 already drafted, February launch ahead — and the real story of building a one-woman publishing operation from a standing start. Including why I ran it like a startup with a fixed budget, taught myself graphic design instead of hiring it out, and why — for the first time — the hardest part feels like it's behind me.

⏱️ Chapters

00:00 — The mountain (how it felt at the base)

00:38 — Where I'm at: copy edits, September handback, February launch

00:46 — Book 2 is already drafted

01:50 — Why I brought on partners (one-woman show)

02:30 — A year since Erastasis "fell into my head"

03:13 — The secret hobby nobody knew about

04:16 — The business trip that changed everything (Markus)

05:47 — I quit with three headhunters chasing me

06:40 — "Oh my God, what if it fails?"

07:30 — Standing at the base of the mountain

09:30 — "I know what you're thinking — I could've hired people"

10:22 — Working media vs. non-working media (the framework)

11:45 — Why I taught myself graphic design

13:42 — Brand launch vs. campaign launch vs. book launch

14:22 — Getting my life back (from 100-hour weeks)

15:07 — Look what I did in four months

📬 Pre-orders drop this November — join the mailing list so you don't miss it: callofmatter.com

🌊 Read the prologue + Chapter 1 free while you're there.

🌊 Call of Matter — Book 1 of the Erastasis series. A debut adult romantasy launching February 9, 2027.

🌊 Instagram / TikTok: @viv.lela

What do your thoughts look like?

I bet no one's ever asked you that before. When I picture an apple, I see a full 4K, multisensory scene — I can feel the warmth of it, hear the crunch, taste that it's a little sour. I assumed everyone's mind worked like mine. Then I asked my husband what he sees… and his answer sent me down a rabbit hole that explained everything about how I write.

There's a name for it: hyperphantasia. And on the other end of the spectrum is aphantasia — people who can't picture anything at all. This is the story of the dinner where I found out, and what it means for the way Call of Matter came to be.

⏱️ Chapters

00:00 — What do your thoughts look like?

00:38 — Where I'm at (copy edits, September handback, February launch, Book 2)

02:21 — The vacation dinner that started it all

03:02 — I asked my husband what he sees when he thinks

05:30 — "I just see the words, floating in space"

07:00 — Think of an apple — what do you see?

09:20 — What I see when I hear "apple" (the full 4K version)

15:16 — Wait — you don't ALL see this?

17:41 — I asked my dad, my best friend… the whole spectrum

19:44 — Falling down the rabbit hole: hyperphantasia & aphantasia

24:06 — Why this explains my entire writing process

25:20 — How Cassidy first "fell into my head"

28:40 — Why my first drafts feel like raw footage

37:26 — Where do YOU lie on the spectrum?

I'm genuinely curious — tell me in the comments what you see when you picture an apple. A movie? A painting? Floating words? Nothing at all? I want to know where you land.

🌊 Call of Matter — Book 1 of the Erastasis series. A debut adult romantasy launching February 9, 2027.

📬 Pre-orders drop this November — join the mailing list so you don't miss it: callofmatter.com

🌊 Read the prologue + Chapter 1 free while you're there.

🌊 Instagram / TikTok: @viv.lela

For readers of Fourth Wing, Crescent City, and Red Rising.

The dream that made the decision.

A couple of months ago, I walked away from my corporate exec career to write my debut novel. I made the decision based on a dream I had the night before I pulled the plug.

This is the story of that week — the one where everythinghappened at once. I’d just finished my third draft and was on the verge of sending it to professional beta readers. And in that exact same week, three headhunters came for me with VP offers, one of which was an expat post in Singapore. Every corporate dream I’d worked over a decade for, suddenly on the table.

The night before I decided, I had a dream. And by the time I'd woken up, I'd made my decision.

This is the most personal, most emotional story of my whole journey. It’s also the one that tells you the most about who I am — and what you can expect when youread Erastasis.

This episode is a companion to my origin story — how I worked for free at 20, quit my dream job at 25, and walked away again at 35. Watch that one next.

Call of Matter — Book 1 of the Erastasis series. February 2027.

The unstrategic choices that built my life.

The long-form origin story. Three times in fifteen years I made the choice that looked wrong on paper — working for free at 20, quitting my dream job at 25 to move to a country where I had nothing lined up, and walking away from an executive career at 35 to write a series that fell into my head on a Sunday morning at the bathroom sink. Each one became one of the best decisions I've ever made.

In this episode: growing up Canadian with Hong Kong roots and never quite feeling like I belonged, the business-school pressure cooker I hated every day, turning down a position everyone told me was "mine," the piece of advice from my mom about working for free that I've never forgotten, and the pattern I only understood in hindsight.

The single week that made me finally leap — the one I still get chills over — is coming in its own episode.

Call of Matter, Book 1 of the Erastasis series, launches February 2027.

A couple of months ago, I was a corporate exec at a global multinational. Fourteen years of branding, marketing and communications for big brands like BMW and Kraft Heinz — a career I built from scratch after moving to Germanywith no language, no network, and no job.

Then I quit to write a romantasy series.

I'm Viv. I'm writing a seven-book series called Erastasis, and I'm publishing the first book, Call of Matter, myself in February 2027. This is the show where I take you all the way inside it — the writing, the cover-art disasters, the beta feedback that shocked me, the money, the decisions, and everything that's gone right and wrong till now.

I have no idea if this is going to work. But I have to try.

New episodes regularly. Subscribe and follow along from the beginning.

Call of Matter — Book 1 of the Erastasis series. February 2027.

Three days. That's how long it took Vivian Lee-Lauss to draw the emblem for a seven-book series — with no design background, no idea how to use the software, and no ability to draw.

Then she spent a week making the real cover. The proper one. The one she was proud of.

Everyone saw something she didn't draw. Everyone picked the one she didn't want.

Fourteen years in branding and marketing, and she still missed it.

This is what happened to the cover of Call of Matter — and why, eventually, she gave in.

Call of Matter launches February 2027. Read the excerpts at callofmatter.com.

Vivian Lee-Lauss hired professional beta readers in the US — strangers who read romantasy, who didn't know her name, who owed her nothing. The report came back 35 pages long. She didn't sleep the night before she opened it.The most shocking thing in it wasn't the criticism.Also in this episode: the friends who said nothing for weeks and then called when they'd finished the book. Seven weeks of 100-hour days, and why 30,000 words had to go.Call of Matter launches February 2027. Read the excerpts at callofmatter.com.

Vivian Lee-Lauss spent fourteen years in branding and marketing. She led packaging design projects. She knows exactly how visual cues work.

Then she designed her own book cover and accidentally made it look like a Chinese takeaway menu.

"I'm Chinese. No self-respecting Chinese person would ever use this font. And I went and drew it. With my own hands. For my romantasy novel."

Two weeks to learn graphic design from zero. Day one made her want to call those headhunters back. What happened in between is this episode.

Call of Matter launches February 2027. Read the blurb at callofmatter.com.