Hear us Roar

My guest this week is Roxana Motiwalla Trabulsi (Of Mud and Honey, Ten16 Press. January 2023). Her debut is based on her parent's struggles in the late 1960's and early 1970's in Yemen as the country morphed into a Communist regime, her father was jailed as a political prisoner, and her mother and siblings were placed under house arrest. We discuss the emotional toll and responsibility of writing your own family's history and how signing with a small press proved the perfect venue to not only tell the story of a little-known country but also gave Roxana the flexibility to publish the book while her parents were still alive. She also shares serendipitous  contacts she made through her Internet research and finding the perfect editor who supported her vision. Born in London, United Kingdom, but raised in Dubai, Roxana now lives just outside of Boston in Massachusetts, where she writes and teaches English Literature at a school for children with learning differences. A graduate of Northeastern University, she worked as a marketing professional for an audio company for several years. She and her husband moved to Tokyo soon after they were married and have lived there twice in the last twenty years. She sits on the board of the local farmer's market where she has not only contributed to creating a sustainable community but has also been able to bring new and diverse programs such as a self-sustainable seed library to her town. Ultimately, she revels most in her role as mum to her three children. She loves all things farmers market, travel, yoga, art and design, and of course, reading. She lives with her husband, her teenage son, and their four-year-old cockapoo.   To learn more about Roxana, click here.  

This week's guest is Brynn Barineau (Jaguars and Other Game, Orange Blossom Publishing, November 2022). After writing two YA novels that didn't find a publisher, Brynn tried her hand at adult fiction and, writing from her then-home in South America, penned a gender-flipped three musketeers story based in 1809 Brazil when the Portuguese royal court fled Napoleon's army and relocated to Rio. It's filled with sword fights, diamond smuggling, court intrigue, and best of all, female friendships as three women work to exonerate their friend who's been accused of murder. So even though Brynn grew up equating writers with rock stars, she's become one and is already on sub for book two. Originally from Atlanta, Georgia, Brynn Barineau has a master's in international communication from American University and background in international education. After college, she moved to her husband's native Rio de Janeiro with too many sweaters and not enough Portuguese. Brynn began writing as a way to process life in a new country. Her fiction is rooted in the power and possibilities of relationships across cultures. She's now back in Atlanta rediscovering her hometown with her Brazilian-American family.  Jaguars and Other Game is her debut novel. Kirkus Review called it an “addictive tale with drama, history and delightful protagonists,” and national best-selling author Lynn Cullen raved “this atmospheric debut had me turning the pages to cheer on the clever trio.” Jaguars and Other Game was a finalist in the National Indie Excellence Awards in multicultural fiction.  To learn more about Brynn, click here.    

Our guest this week is Patricia Hudson (Traces, Firesign Industries, Univ of Kentucky Press, November 2022). Patricia's historical fiction debut centers around 3 forgotten women—the wife and two daughters of Daniel Boone, the famous explorer and an early “social influencer” who gained fame for opening up the Kentucky area after the Revolutionary War. Patricia, a former free-lance writer, set out not just to record the what of these women's lives but also the why behind their stories and to do so, joined a low-res MFA program, both to get help writing the novel but also for its networking component. We discuss what it's like to go to market with a university press and how she's found hand-selling to be her best marketing tool.   Patricia Hudson, a one-time university reference librarian, has been a freelance writer for 30 years, specializing in history and travel topics. She was a contributing editor at Americana magazine for more than a decade, and a regular contributor to Southern Living magazine. She's the coeditor of Listen Here: Women Writing in Appalachia, and author of The Carolinas and the Appalachian States, a volume in the Smithsonian Guide to Historic America series. Her library background paved the way for her work on a variety of research projects for other writers, including Alex Haley. She lives in Knoxville, Tennessee with her husband, photographer, Sam Stapleton, and two rescue dogs. To learn more about Patricia, click here.

This week's guest is Kathy Maresca (Porch Music, Touch Point Press, October 2022) In her debut novel, set in 1950's Gainesville Florida, Kathy utilized stories from her Seminole family history to tap into a story of racial inequities, Southern culture, country music, and religious hypocrisy. Her research included not only books and museums, but also her own memories of working at Six Gun Territory, a local theme park, and absorbing the rhythm of Native American dances. When it came to marketing, her most effective tool turned out to be contests, where she used her awards to publicize her book. Her least effective? A blog tour which failed to correctly target her ideal reader.    A native Floridian, Kathy Maresca grew up with a grandmother of Seminole heritage. Kathy served in the Air Force, working at the Air Force Academy Cadet Chapel and then in special operations at Hurlburt Field, Florida. She edited for the University of Florida and taught English, journalism, and drama. While she was teaching, Kathy became ill with trigeminal neuralgia. She then earned a master's degree, became credentialed as a rehabilitation counselor, and served as the Director of Patient Services for the Trigeminal Neurgalgia Association. Kathy recently finished her second novel, Sky Kiss, and is working on a prequel to Porch Music. She has been a Guardian ad Litem and has taught classes for a prison fellowship ministry. Kathy lives in North Carolina with her husband, Keith. They enjoy traveling and spending time with their toy fox terriers.   To learn more about Kathy, click here.  

Our guest this week is Georgia Day (Of Sand and Bone, Rhapsody Press, November 2022). Hear how a recurring nightmare, complete with a haunting, portentous image, led Georgia to the story that would eventually morph into her speculative fiction novel. Set in a unique world of undulating sand and daily life-and-death struggles, her two female protagonists set out on a journey and Georgia went on her own journey as well, creating a world where everything from the environment to the origin stories and myths to the animals that share the space had to come  from her own imagination.  into a lyrical yet unsettling dystopia. Her reading from this lyrical yet unsettling dystopia half-way through the interview will enchant you as will her future goal of growing Rhapsody Press as a joint co-op venture with her father, a fellow writer. Georgia Day holds a B.A. in Literary Studies from the University of Texas at Dallas and has dreamed of being a writer her entire life. She is an avid reader, movie buff, and travel enthusiast. Her first novel, Of Sand and Bone, was named a 2023 National Indie Excellence Awards Finalist in the category of Literary Fiction. She lives in the United States. To learn more about Georgia, click here.

This week's guest is Amy Watson (Closer to Okay, Alcove Press, October 2022). Amy and I discuss clinical depression (she and her husband both live with this) and how her goal in writing her debut was to give voice to this little-understood condition and ways to cope with it. Listen for the serendipitous path that led Amy to her agent and eventually to her publisher, how her biggest marketing success came from inclusion on a book box site she didn't even solicit, and how gratifying it's been to hear from readers about both her book's rawness and its authenticity. Amy Watson is a native of Little Rock, Arkansas. A wife, a mother to two boys, and a full-time office manager. In her spare time, she enjoys reading, baking, knitting, and watching football. Closer to Okay is her first novel. To learn more about Amy, click here.

Our guest this week is Linda Moore (Attribution, She Writes Press, October 2022). You'll smile at Linda's analogy of how introducing your book to your audience is a lot like offering them chocolate chip cookies and about how men are still getting it wrong in terms of the harassment present in academia.  And if you're interested in marketing to book clubs, you'll enjoy our lengthy discussion about how Linda approached this often-neglected marketing opportunity, eventually guesting at over seventy clubs in the last 16 months, both locally and via Zoom appearances. A recovering gallery owner, traveler and writer, Linda Moore uses her experiences in her writing. After studying and earning degrees at the University of California, Stanford and University of Washington (whew!), she spent time as a hospital administrator until she turned her love of art into a business and opened an art gallery. Drawing upon a year studying at Complutense University of Madrid in Spain, she focused the gallery's art on contemporary Hispanic art, especially from the southern cone of South America (Argentina, Uruguay, Chile). She continued traveling after she closed the gallery and has been to all seven continents multiple times and has visited over 100 countries. She lives with her husband in San Diego and takes refuge when she can in beautiful Kauai where they have a cottage. To learn more about Linda, click here.

This week's guest author is Karen Heenan (Coming Apart, indie published, October 2022). Our discussion ranges from what happens when the characters in your 1930's stand-alone historical novel have more to say (your book turns into a trilogy), what to do when as agent asks you to rewrite your novel in another author's voice (you part ways) to the unexpected and fascinating tidbits you learn when diving into research (ever heard of  ‘bootleg coal-mining?'). We end with a discussion of indie vs. trad publishing where Karen maintains agents are no longer the gatekeepers; readers are. And all they care about is whether your book is any good. As an only child, Karen Heenan learned young that boredom was the ultimate enemy. Since discovering books, she is never without one in her hand and several more in her head. Karen lives in Lansdowne, PA, just outside Philadelphia, where she grows much of her own food and makes her own clothes. She is accompanied on her quest for self-sufficiency by a very patient husband and an ever-changing number of cats. One constant: she is always writing her next book. To learn more about Karen, click here.    

The podcast this week features Wendy Adair (The Broken Hallelujah, indie published, October 2022). Once Wendy had her core idea, snippets of facts as well as sources seemed to appear serendipitously, including the old trunk of a loved one. And we delve into genre – how she set out to write a women's fiction novel that morphed into another often overlooked genre as well, what it was like to discover a new readership to market to, and the freedom and creativity she's found in publishing her own work. And if you've been on the fence about audiobooks, her experience with that medium may help you decide to take the plunge. Wendy Adair is a former public relations professional who worked in academia and upon retirement, became a published author.  Her debut women's fiction novel received the 2023 IPPY Bronze Medal for Wartime Fiction and she was a finalist for both the 2023 International Book Award and the Page Turner Award. She is currently at work on a trilogy of cozy mysteries set in a college town featuring a multi-generational family of women amateur sleuths. To learn more about Wendy, click here.  

This week our guest is Gloria Mattioni (California Sister, Atmosphere Press, September 2022). Gloria, originally born in Italy, wrote six previous books before penning her women's fiction debut, a story loosely resembling a traumatic incident in her own life. The memoir form proved too painful to write and a screenplay hid the interiority needed to understand the sisters, but a dual POV novel proved to be the perfect structure for showing the emotional journey of the characters. Gloria crowd-sourced 40 hand-picked creatives for feedback and once she finished the book, was clear and specific about the time frame, the cost, and the support she needed from a publisher. And it paid off – she's won 11 of the 12 writing competitions she's entered. Gloria Mattioni is the author of the multi-award-winning novel California Sister and an award-winning feature writer contributing to mainstream publication around the world. She also published the narrative non-fiction Reckless - The Outrageous Lives of Nine Kick-Ass Women, Dakota Warrior-The Story of James R. Weddell, and four previous books in Italy. She's been, among other things, an investigative reporter, human rights activist, animal rescuer and magazine editor. She was born in Milan, Italy, but moved to Los Angeles in 1992. She still lives in California with her husband and part-time live-in granddaughter, conjures six impossible things every morning before breakfast, and travels much.  To learn more about Gloria, click here.  

Our podcast guest this week is Nancy Yeager (When We Were Friends, Red Adept, October 2022).  This was Nancy's debut women's fiction although during the time she worked on it with both a book coach and a developmental editor, she wrote and released six historical romances and six contemporary romances. This novel (one inspiration was a Steve Miller song) was complicated by not only two POV's but also two timelines, one of which unspooled backwards. But her biggest challenge was the scramble at release time – due to a scheduling snafu, her launch window was only six weeks long and involved not only the standard marketing steps but also the task of recruiting a different street team for this new genre. Luckily, Nancy's a quick study and she pulled it off. Award-winning author Nancy Yeager writes commercial fiction, historical romance, and contemporary romantic suspense. When she's not writing, she's often pursuing fitness goals like completing 90-day fitness challenges and aspiring to achieve the perfect crow pose. She also spends her time drinking too much coffee, not enough red wine, and just the right amount of bourbon. She lives in Maryland with her husband and some very spoiled rescue cats. WHEN WE WERE FRIENDS is Nancy's first book of women's fiction. To learn more about Nancy, click here.

This week's podcast guest is Anastasia Zadeik (Blurred Fates, She Writes Press, August 2022). Her novel, which won the prestigious 2022 Sarton Award for Contemporary Fiction, examines the role memory—whether suppressed, purposely hidden, or misremembered—plays in a person's life and how one of the worst days of her life gave her the insight to tell the story. We talk about how she found the perfect home with a hybrid press, embracing Facebook ads (she actually enjoys the creativity behind them) and what criteria she used to decide on which contests to enter. And don't miss our discussion of blending genres – her readers tell her she's written a psychological suspense when all along she thought it was women's fiction.   Anastasia Zadeik is a writer, editor, and frequent performer of narrative nonfiction in a hushed bar. She serves as the Director of Communications for the San Diego Writers Festival, as a writing and performance coach for the literary nonprofit So Say We All, and as a board member for the International Memoir Writers Association. Her debut novel, Blurred Fates, won both the 2023 Sarton Award and the 2023 National Indie Excellence Award for Contemporary Fiction. Her second novel, The Other Side of Nothing, will be released in May 2024.  When she isn't reading or writing, you can find her hiking, practicing yoga, or hanging out with her husband, Tom, and their empty-nest rescue dog, Charlie.    To learn more about Anastasia, click here.  

Our guest this week is Suzanne Moyers (‘Til All These Things Be Done., She Writes Press, September 2022). We discuss her historical fiction debut, loosely based on her grandmother's life story and how sometimes research isn't onerous but fascinating when you find a fact in the past that provides context to a plot point or an old photo that sparks inspiration for the world-building necessary to bring a bygone era to life. Suzanne's rich trove of research led to a series of fascinating blogs and Facebook posts that's resulted in thousands of views, shares, and bestseller status and her continuing foray into both Amazon and Facebook targeted ads led to her selling out her first print run two months after her book's release. Now her interest in both metal detecting and Victorian times is helping her write her second novel. Suzanne Moyers, a former teacher, was an education editor and writer for over 20 years. A lifelong history geek, Suzanne spends her free time as a volunteer archeologist, mudlarker, and metal detectorist.  Suzanne is the proud mom to two amazing young adults, Sara and Jassi, and resides in the greater New York City area with her husband, Edward, and spoiled fur baby, Tuxi. To learn more about Suzanne, click here.   

This week's podcast guest is Judith Turner-Yakamoto (Loving the Dead and Gone, Regal House, September 2022). We discuss how she pulled her manuscript just before it was going to press because she realized she needed to “kill someone”, how even though she worked for 20 years as a publicist, she still considers the publishing business a deeply strange pond, how getting comfortable with sharing deeply-personal posts on Facebook has helped grow her readership and brought her speaking opportunities, and how she found her publisher through becoming a finalist for the Petrichor Prize, an annual fiction writing competition. Judith Turner-Yamamoto's debut novel LOVING THE DEAD AND GONE, a Mariel Hemingway Book Club pick, won the 2023 Independent Publisher Book Awards Gold Medal in Southern Regional Fiction. The North Carolina Society of Historians recognized the novel with the 2023 Historical Novel Award. Shortlisted for the 2023 Eric Hoffer Book Awards Grand Prize, the book was also honorable mention in General Fiction and finalist for the First Horizon Award for Debut Fiction. Judith's other awards include two Virginia Arts Commission fellowships, an Ohio Arts Council fellowship, the Thomas Wolfe Fiction Prize, and the Virginia Screenwriting Award.   Judith's publications include StorySOUTH, Mississippi Review, Deep South, and many anthologies. Her articles have appeared in Elle, Travel & Leisure, AARP, and the Los Angeles Times, and her interviews aired on NPR affiliate WVXU. A Kentucky Humanities Speakers Bureau scholar, Judith speaks at conferences and book festivals, including the Chautauqua Writers' Center, Chautauqua Institution, the Santa Barbara Writers Conference, and Gaithersburg Book Festival. She lives on the Kentucky/Ohio border where her love of travel and place continues to inspire her writing. To learn more about Judith, click here.

Our latest podcast features Jacqueline Boulden (Her Past Can't Wait, Pine Place Press/indie, September 2022). We discuss EMDR, a new therapeutic treatment that plays a central role in her novel and has been effective in treating people suffering from PTSD, how Jacqueline's background as a reporter both helped and got in the way when she entered the world of fiction, and the valuable advice and support she's found in a new sub-group within WFWA that specifically helps debut indie authors navigate the tricky terrain of publishing their own work. Jacqueline Boulden is the 2023 IPPY (Independent Press) Gold Award Winner for Best Regional Fiction, Mid-Atlantic, for Her Past Can't Wait. This debut novel was also named the 2023 Global Book Awards Gold winner for Psychological Thriller, and finalist in several other contests. Her second novel, Family Ties Family Lies (pub Jan 2024), also looks at how our past affects our present and shapes our future. Before turning to writing fiction, Jacqueline won several Emmy awards for reporting and Telly awards for video production. Her TV career took her around the country covering politics in Washington, D.C., NASA and the space shuttle program in Florida (including the Challenger accident) and fighting the wind for control of her hat during live shots in hurricanes and blizzards while working in Orlando and Philadelphia. She lives in upstate New York with her spouse and their rescue dog, who's teaching them how to speak Beaglish.To learn more about Jacqueline, click here.      

The guest this week is Carol Van Den Hende (Orchid Blooming, Azine Press, September 2022). We talk about what happens when a character you weren't expecting comes onto the stage and demands to be heard, how Carol bought back the rights to her first book so she could stretch herself and become the publisher of her 3-book series, how she's incorporated her life goals into her writing journey, and how she teaches writers to think of their personal brand as a promise they make to their reader which can in turn help them make choices about where to put their time and energy. CAROL VAN DEN HENDE is an award-winning author who pens stories of resilience and hope. Her novels Orchid Blooming  and Goodbye, Orchid draw from her Chinese American heritage, and have won 30+ literary and design awards, including the American Fiction Award, IAN Outstanding Fiction First Novel Award, and Royal Dragonfly Awards for Cultural Diversity and Disability Awareness.  Buzzfeed, Parade, and Travel+Leisure named Carol's books a most anticipated read. Glamour Magazine recommended her “modern, important take on the power of love.” The International Pulpwood Queens selected Goodbye, Orchid as a 2022 Bonus Book-of-the-Month and Orchid Blooming as a 2023 International Book-of-the-Month. Carol's mission is unlocking optimism as a writer, speaker, strategist, Board member and Climate Reality Leader. One secret to her good fortune? Her humorous hubby and twins, who prove that love really does conquer all. To learn more about Carol, click here.  

This week's guest is Tamatha Cain (Song of the Chimney Sweep, Orange Blossom Publishing, August, 2022). We discuss Tamatha's love of not only the musical heritage of Jacksonville but also true crime podcasts and how she was able to mash the two together in her dual time-line debut novel which tells the story of a missing woman, an interracial marriage, and a mystery played out over the airways. We also discuss Only Oona, her second book and a biography of  debutante, actress, and writer Oona Chaplin, whose absent father was the playwright Eugene O'Neill and whose husband was world-renowned Charlie Chaplin.   As the child of an Indian immigrant and her military code interceptor husband, Tamatha Cain lived in four countries and seven states. She is the winner of the 2022 Florida Book Award, the 2020 Royal Palm Literary Award, and The Experience Poetry Competition. A musician and former bandleader, she graduated with honors from the University of North Florida and has a BA in English. She writes book reviews for the Southern Literary Review and is a member of the Women's Fiction Writers Association, Women Writing the West, and Florida Writers Association. She and her husband live with their weirdly smart little dog in a hundred-year-old bungalow in North Florida. To learn more about Tamatha, click here.  

In this week's podcast with L Maristatter (Tiny Tin House, Niffy Cat Press, August 2022), we examine what she did when her manuscript grew to 380,000 words (chopped it up into bite-sized pieces and made it a trilogy), the challenges of writing a novel that takes a clear political stance (including working hard to make it more than a revenge screed), how essential it is for an indie author to not scrimp when it comes to interior design and cover art and her best advice to over-anxious authors: don't rush to publication but include a 6-month lead-up to release to maximize your pre-publicity. L Maristatter holds a BA in journalism and an MA in communication. Her short story, “Crying in the Sun,” was published in The Saturday Evening Post online, and the web journal Defuncted published her poem, “Child.”  Maristatter is a member of the Alliance of Independent Authors, the Women's Fiction Writers Association, the Wisconsin Writers Association, the Author's Guild, and Realm Makers. She lives in the snowy Midwest, where she tries to stay warm, reads terrific fiction, and eats way too much chocolate. She's on Goodreads, Facebook, and Twitter regularly, and TikTok and Instagram when she's feeling brave. To learn more about Lisa, click here.  

This week's guest is CJ McGroarty (Clara in a Time of War, Atmosphere Press, September 2022). We talk at length about the world-building inherent in writing historical fiction, a genre that requires the author to not only pay attention to historical facts and real-life events but also be attuned to more subtle details like language, word choice, and style of dialogue and the existing norms of gender roles and codes of conduct in a particular time period. CJ also shares her thoughts on the value of MFA programs and how in-person events are often the best way to make a connection with lifelong readers. C.J. McGroarty is a former reporter for The Philadelphia Inquirer with an MFA in Creative Writing. A Pushcart Prize nominee, her short fiction has been published in a variety of magazines and journals. Her debut novel, Clara in a Time of War, was released in September 2022 by Atmosphere Press. When she isn't writing, C.J. gardens, reads, sings, and serves as a tour guide at Historic Waynesborough, the lifelong home of Revolutionary War General Anthony Wayne. She lives in Chester County, Pa., with her husband, Jim, and their cat. C.J. recently completed work on her second novel, The House on Chambers Road, a supernatural mystery set outside Philadelphia. To learn more about Cynthia, click here.  

Today's podcast features Leslie Kain (Secrets in the Mirror, Atmosphere Press, September 2022). We discuss how she writes out her action story first, in cinematic scenes, then goes back and adds in the emotional interiority and reactions later, making sure to not lose the magical voice which is crucial to bringing the reader into the story.  Her background in psychology informs her tale of two identical twins caught up in a dysfunctional family dynamic that leaves them both scarred.  Leslie Kain writes “Psychological Fiction With Heart” ― Often dark stories about messed-up people whose greatest obstacles to happiness lie within them. Leslie was always writing something when she was a kid – fantasies, poems, secret plans; culminating in running away across country at fifteen, never looking back. But in her careers (psychology, Government Intelligence, nonprofits), her writing was limited to nonfiction: professional, research. Finally dabbling in fiction during spare moments above the clouds, her short stories found their way into literary journals and anthologies. She developed personal relationships with her characters, who relentlessly nagged her into longer stories. Her debut novel, ‘Secrets In The Mirror' has been honored with many awards; its sequel, ‘What Lies Buried', will be released May 2024. She also recently contributed to the anthology ‘A Million Ways: Stories of Motherhood.'  Kain leverages her education, training and experience in psychology to write stories of inner conflict and emotional transformation. She earned degrees from Wellesley College and Boston University. She now lives in Mexico with her husband and 17-year old cat Sheba.    To learn more about Leslie, click here.  

In this special edition, we talk round-table style with three of the hard-working volunteers behind making the 10th Anniversary Celebration a success:  Jamie Beck, heading up the Agent Pitch and Query Letter happenings, Wendy Rossi, interim co-chair of the event (which means her fingerprints are pretty much everywhere), and Erin Quinn-Kong, in charge of our great line-up of guest speakers and workshop facilitators. We discuss what's in store for the attendees, the long-term planning as well as behind-the-scenes details (nametags, anyone?) that went into making an event like this happen, and what each is most looking forward to next week as 350 members meet in real life in Chicago. Jamie Beck is a Wall Street Journal and USA Today bestselling author of 18 novels, which have been translated into multiple languages and have sold more than three million copies worldwide. Critics at Kirkus, Publishers Weekly, and Booklist have respectively called her work "smart," "uplifting," and "entertaining." In addition to writing novels, she enjoys dancing around the kitchen while cooking and hitting the slopes in Vermont and Utah. Above all, she is a grateful wife and mother to a very patient, supportive family.   Erin Quinn-Kong is an award-winning writer and editor based in Austin, TX. Currently the managing editor of Texas Highways, Erin has also been an editor at Austin Monthly, Us Weekly, and Allure. She's been writing fiction since 2019, and her debut novel, HATE FOLLOW, will be released in October 2024 by William Morrow. Born and raised in Missouri, with a three-year detour to California, Erin is a graduate of the University of Missouri School of Journalism. When she's not writing, you'll most likely find her on an adventure with her foodie husband and their two delightful children.   Wendy Rossi is the Membership Director for WFWA, a role she's been in for almost three years. Prior to joining the Board, Wendy helped to facilitate several online activities for the organization, which led to the opportunity to be nominated for Board service. Wendy is currently polishing her draft of her first work of fiction, a dual-timeline work of Women's Fiction and Historical Fiction. She retired from her professional career in business-project management in January 2023 and is looking forward to pursuing her creative and home-centric interests until grandkids come along.  To learn more about WFWA, click here.  

This week's guest is Adele Holmes (Winter's Reckoning, She Writes Press, August 2022). We discuss the complexity of not only writing three-POVs of different age groups and gender in her debut novel but also setting it in a tumultuous time period (the rural south of 1917 America) when the KKK was resurging and both women's rights, civil rights, and secondary education were under attack. A former pediatrician, Adele shares how her creative well had become depleted, how more experienced writers shared not only their advice but also their audience with her, and how marketing remains her least favorite part of the writing journey. Adele Holmes graduated from medical school in 1993. After twenty-plus years in private practice pediatrics, her unquenchable desire to wander the world, write, and give back to the community led her to retire from medicine. Her fun-loving family includes a rollicking crew of her husband Chris, two adult children and their spouses, five grandchildren of diverse ages and talents, a horse, and a Bernedoodle. Winter's Reckoning, Adele's debut novel, won Honorable Mention in the 2021 William Faulkner Literary Competition and first place in the 2021 Chanticleer International Book Award-Goethe Award. Kirkus Reviews called it “A notable tale that offers the hope that even small actions can lead toward greater good.” She is currently at work on her second novel in her resident town of Little Rock, Arkansas. To learn more about Adele, click here.

Our guest this week is Carol Dunbar (The Net Beneath Us, Forge, September 2022). A successful actor in Minneapolis, Carol realized she was a storyteller working in the wrong art form so she switched from the world of the stage to the world of the page and moved off the grid with her family to rural Wisconsin. Her debut is the story of a woman who must deal with grief and open herself up to community when a tragic accident cleaves her world in two. Carol shares how an unexpected gift led to her perfect title and how investing in a writing conference changed her life. And if your dream is to be published by the Big Five, listen to her journey of finding the perfect agent to being on sub for four years to landing a two-book deal with an imprint of McMillan and working with a talented in-house editor whose probing questions taught her to be a better writer. CAROL DUNBAR is a working writer and former actor who left her life in the city to live off the grid. She is the author of two novels, The Net Beneath Us, winner of the 2022 Edna Ferber Fiction Book Award, and A Winter's Rime, releasing in the fall of 2023. She writes from a solar-powered office on the second floor of a water tower in northern Wisconsin, where she lives in a house in the woods with her husband, two kids, and a Great Pyrenes Mountain Dog. To learn more about Carol, click here.    

This week's podcast guest is Angela Cairns (Touch, indie published August 2022). A resident of the UK, Angela's fiction is informed by her work as a physiotherapist and healer. We talk about the rich history of storytelling and its ability to reach people at a deep emotional level and her belief that moving even one reader makes all the hard work behind producing a novel worthwhile. An entrepreneur at heart, Angela initially went the agent/publisher route but then, spurred on by the premature death of a beloved friend, she decided life's too short and began to educate herself on the ins and outs of self-publishing. The result is her 4-book series which follows a woman as she navigates life's milestones. Angela writes books for people who love people and life in all its tangled glory – for those who quietly work for transformation and believe in happy endings.  In her books, you will find resilient, relatable heroines with warm hearts who try to do the next right thing despite difficult circumstances and their own saboteur voices.Her first novel, Touch, became an Amazon best-seller. There are now four novels in the Ellie Rose Series. Her first historical romance novel, A Song for Kitty, is due for release on 24th August 2023 by The Book Reality Experience and Leschenault Press. Her short stories have been published in ‘Yours' magazine and feature regularly on the radio. She is a regular guest on writing podcasts and summits.Angela is also a writing coach and passionate about people being inspired to write. She believes that creativity can be messy, and scary, but we must do it anyway. The world needs each unique voice – and if not you, then who can write your truth? Married with two grown lads and three grandsons, Angela is owned by two Gordon Setter dogs.  To learn more about Angela, click here. 

Our podcast this week features Sharon Peterson (The Do-Over, Bookouture, August 2022). Tempted to give up writing when faced with raising four children (two with special needs), a downsized husband hospitalized with COVID, and the loss of her house in a natural disaster, Sharon turned to blogging as free therapy and with a sense of humor, a dose of humility and a tendency to overshare, discovered a community of bookstagrammers, a loyal agent, and a supportive writing home in WFWA and wound up with a two-book contract with a division of Hatchette. Sharon M. Peterson is a former middle school teacher and has the personality to prove it. One of her favorite quotes is from Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath: “It was her habit to build up laughter out of inadequate materials.” She strives to tackle life that way and create characters who do the same. She lives in Washington with her husband and four children, including two autistic sons. She has one cat, two dogs, one tattoo, and an intense fear of poodles (don't ask). Sharon is the author of The Do-Over and The Fake Out, both romantic comedies. She can usually be found hunched over her computer, creating characters and stories she hopes you'll love as much as she does. To learn more about Sharon, click here.    

This week our guest is Dianne Braley (The Silence in the Sound, Koehler Books, August 2022). Her experience working on Martha's Vineyard as private nurse to William Styron, Pulitzer-prize winning author of Sophie's Choice, provided the framework for Dianne's debut novel as well as her childhood trauma of growing up with an alcoholic parent. We discuss author platform (she runs a popular blog for nurses) as well as the strategy of affiliating with an existing charity that aligns with your novel's theme.  A raw, gritty New Englander, Dianne C. Braley found love for the written word early on, reading and creating stories while trying to escape hers, growing up in the turbulent world of alcoholism while living in the tough inner city. After putting her pencil down for a time, she became a registered nurse finding strength and calm in caring for those who couldn't care for themselves. She soon became the private nurse for an ailing Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist who was not only her patient but became her friend and motivator. He and his books helped her realize she missed crafting stories, and she had some to tell. Dianne and her family—human, furry, and feathered—are firmly planted in a small town north of Boston but not far enough away to lose her city edge. She is earning her degree in creative writing and still reeling from the success of her first novel, The Silence in the Sound, which was inspired by actual events and released in 2022. Part of the proceeds from her book are shared with the Robert F. Kennedy Community Alliance organization that assists children and families affected by addiction. To read more about Dianne, click here.    

Listen here to our interview with Rita H. Rowe (Becoming Ruthless. Indie published, October 2021). Rita's a prolific writer, releasing eight books so far with others around the corner yet she's still learning and growing as an author, particularly when it comes to how to publicize her work. We discuss her organic method of writing (pantser all the way) and how her first novel sprang from an event that blindsided a best friend. A resident of Australia, Rita hasn't found it easy to connect to fellow writers, so as a recent member of WFWA, she's found not only a trove of information but a new set of friends as well. Rita H Rowe is a teacher and author with a Bachelor of Arts, a Diploma of Education, and a Masters in Writing. Her journey into writing began as a lifelong dream that she was finally able to pursue at the age of forty-seven, resulting in her first novel, Never the Moon. Rita pours her heart and soul into her writing, incorporating her personal experiences with love, romance, hurt, and abuse. To Rita, writing is both a form of therapy and a way to connect with like-minded readers on a deeper level. As an author, Rita hopes to be remembered as someone who created worlds that readers could lose themselves in, even just for a little while. When she isn't writing, Rita enjoys playing pool, painting, going on motorbike rides, and spending time with her children and mother.   To learn more about Rita, click here.  

This week we talk with Maggie Ginsberg (Still True, Univ of Wisconsin Press, September 2022). Maggie, a journalist and magazine editor, always thought the novelists she admired were born with “magic author brains”, that ideas simply flowed out of their fingers onto the page. It was only after she decided to write a book herself that she discovered the similarities with er non-fiction interviews—the characters were actually “real people” and all she had to do was ask the right questions so she could understand their story. We discuss the pluses and challenges of publishing with an academic press, how the key to a major character was buried in her own personal history, and how her award-winning book unabashedly claims “Midwestern Lit” as its genre.   Maggie Ginsberg is a writer, editor and author in Wisconsin. Her debut novel, Still True, was published by the University of Wisconsin Press in September 2022 and is one of three finalists in this year's WFWA STAR Award for Outstanding Debut. It was also the honorable mention selection for the 2022 Edna Ferber Fiction Book Award and a 2023 Midwest Book Awards silver medal winner in the Literary/Contemporary/Historical Fiction category. Maggie is now a senior editor at Madison Magazine after freelancing for city, regional and national magazines since 2006, and her nonfiction work has earned numerous honors from the City Regional Magazine Association, the American Society of Journalists and Authors, and the Milwaukee Press Club. She lives with her bicycle mechanic husband and a revolving door of kids and pets.  To learn more about Maggie, click here.

This week's podcast features Carolyn Clarke (And Then There's Margaret, Black Rose Writing, July 2022). As the founder and resident guru of HenLit Central, Carolyn had a wealth of knowledge and contacts to draw from when she made the leap to novelist. Her idea to write a coming-of-middle-age story morphed into this light-hearted but ultimately touching tale of the challenges when your life includes not only the man you love, but his mother as well. We discuss working with a small press, the value of Kindle Unlimited and BookBub, and how entering your book in writing contests help with both discoverability and legitimacy for a debut author. Carolyn Clarke is the founder and curator of HenLit Central, a blog focused on ‘life and lit' for women over 40. And Then There's Margaret is her first novel. She has been an ESL teacher for over sixteen years and has co-authored several articles and resources with Cambridge University Press, MacMillan Education and her award-winning blog ESL Made Easy. She lives in Toronto, Canada with her partner, Tony, her two daughters and a bulldog, Sophie.           To learn more about Carolyn, click here.                                                                                                                   

This week's podcast is with D.F. (Donna) Kennedy (The Truth, indie-published, June 2022). We talk about her journey from writing a memoir about her unique and often trauma-filled life (sexual abuse, kidnaping, foster care) to changing her story into a fictional piece and how that decision unleashed her creative juices, ultimately resulting in a 3-part series she wrote for rapid release. We discuss her ties and synergies with Colleen Hoover, her decision to go indie, and the fact that satisfaction often lies in accomplishments other than financial success. Donna F. Kennedy is the author of multiple novels under multiple pen names. She doesn't like to box herself into one type of story, but at the core of her novels is soul-searching thought-provoking love, loss, and/or pain. She writes with such emotion drawing from her own life experiences. Donna is a gypsy at heart, and when she isn't traveling and sharing her adventures between the pages of a good book, she shares them on social media.  For more information and for a schedule of events, please click here. 

Tune in to our podcast episode with Staci Greason (All The Girls in Town, Touchpoint Press, July 2022). In her early twenties, Staci was a regular cast member on Days of Our Lives, a popular daytime soap, but she had things she wanted to say in her own words rather than other people's so she switched to writing. But that acting background still comes in handy when she's writing dialogue scenes and means she's good at knowing how people sound and move through the world. Music is also an important part of her life —knowing what her characters listen to is an essential part of her process. Her message to writers: books can have a long and varied life – hers is billed as Bad Sisters meets 9 to 5 and is currently being shopped as a book to feature deal. Staci Greason's literary achievements include award-winning television pilots and screenplays. Her well-reviewed novel, All the Girls in Town, was published by Touch Point Press (July 26, 2022). Her short stories and essays have been published in Brevity, Slate, Lunch Ticket, AFLW, the Same, and the Huff Post. In her past life, she played the late Isabella Toscano Black on Days of Our Lives. Staci lives in Southern California. To learn more about Staci, click here.  

Give a listen to our interview with Lisa Williamson Rosenberg (Embers on the Wind, Little A, August 2022). Lisa's life has been a study in duality. She's a self-described Black Jew, a ballerina turned shrink, and a recovered anorexic and bulimic responsible for feeding her family. Her novel began with the local legend of a ghost from the abolitionist period said to haunt her in-law's familial summer home and grew to include linked stories from three different time periods, as she explores the myriad lived experience of modern Black women. We discuss how she carved out time to write during carpool jaunts, how her agent stuck with her through various “almosts” until selling her debut to an Amazon imprint, and the perks that resulted from being a “First Reads” choice on that platform.  Lisa is an author and psychotherapist specializing in developmental trauma and racial identity. She is also a former ballet dancer with the Pacific Northwest and Pennsylvania Ballet companies. A Pushcart Prize nominee, Lisa's short fiction has appeared in Literary Mama and The Piltdown Review; essays in Lithub, Longreads, Narrative.ly, The Common, Grok Nation, Oldster, and Mamalode. Lisa's debut novel, EMBERS ON THE WIND, about an Underground Railroad safehouse turned 21st Century Airbnb, was released on August 1, 2022 by Little A Books. A born-and-raised New Yorker, Lisa now lives in Montclair, New Jersey with her husband and dog. Lisa is the mother of two college kids. To learn more about Lisa, click here.  

In honor of Women's Fiction Day 2023, pull up a chair and listen to this special edition of Hear Us Roar celebrating Women's Fiction Day 2023. Our guests on the episode are Orly Konig, Kerry Lonsdale, and Laura Drake, three of the founding members of the Women's Fiction Writers Association. We discuss how and why the group got started “way back when”, the struggles of the early days, and how the organization has evolved over the last ten years. Finally we end with picking the brains of these seasoned professionals about the genre itself and why the term “women's fiction” may also need to evolve.    Kerry Lonsdale is the Amazon Charts, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post and #1 Kindle bestselling author of the Everything series, No More trilogy, and multiple standalone domestic drama novels. Her books have sold more than two million copies and have been translated into twenty-seven languages. She lives in Northern California with her husband, two adult children (when they're home from college), and three cats. Laura Drake is a New York and self-published author of fourteen Romance and Women's Fiction stories. Her debut, The Sweet Spot, the 2014 Romance Writers of America® RITA® award. A city girl turned Texan, she's currently working on her accent. She's a wife, grandmother, and motorcycle chick in the remaining waking hours. Orly Konig is the founding president of the Women's Fiction Writers Association and author of The Distance Home which was a finalist in both the general and debut categories in WFWA's Star Award; and Carousel Beach, which was named to Southern Living's list of Beach Reads Perfect for Summer Vacation. She lives in Maryland where she can be found juggling multiple works in progress — both writing and crocheting.  

Nina has no end of interesting tie-ins to her book that she uses in presentations and social media posts from the history and culture of Venice, to ancient poisons, to the world of art and art patrons, to Talmudic scholars and famous courtesans. Her three-part series straddles the line between women's fiction, historical mystery, and historical romance and her rich background, from studying illustration for children's books to running her own advertising company, has prepared her well for her new career as a novelist. Nina Wachsman graduated from Parsons School of Design where she studied illustration with Maurice Sendak. After a career as an ad agency creative director, she is now CEO of a digital marketing company in NYC. Her debut novel of historical suspense, The Gallery of Beauties has been nominated for an Agatha award for Best First Novel, and is the first book in this series focused on Venice, with the second book, The Courtesan's Secret, due to release in August 2023. She has family ties to the city of Venice, as a descendant of a well-known chief rabbi, and through the heirloom Sabbath candlesticks from Venice, which her mother lit every Friday night.    To learn more about Nina, click here.    

Our guest this week is Chris Posti (Falling Apart, Falling for You, Elk Lake Publishing, April 2022). During the pandemic lockdown, Chris followed the sage wisdom of “write the book you'd like to read” and penned a coming-of-age story for women over fifty. Hear how a serendipitous shared birthday resulted in a publishing contract with a well-known Christian small press and how having a husband who owns a restaurant resulted in a unique marketing opportunity.    Chris' debut novel, featured in this podcast, is the first in a planned series of three books and was recently named a Selah Awards Finalist. While self-employed as a career and executive coach, Chris also published four nonfiction books and wrote a newspaper column for the Sunday Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. She and her husband live in the Pittsburgh area. Other than writing, her favorite activity is being silly with her grandsons. To learn more about Chris, click here.  

Our guest this week is E.J. Tanda (Queen of Secrets, indie published, June 2022). The book Twilight had a profound effect on E.J. when she was suffering a low period in her life and she vowed to try her hand at moving people in the same way. Very much a pantser, her characters present themselves as fully formed and dictate the story to her. Her debut, inspired by a family story, features the unique perspective of a woman who becomes a mafia wife through an arranged marriage. We discuss why she decided to self-publish and how she worked with both a book editor and a marketing specialist to master the skills she launch her book into the marketplace.     E.J. Tanda lives in Northern California with her husband and three sons. Growing up, she was surrounded by a large Italian family. With a rich, cultural background guiding her writing, she weaves her heritage throughout her stories. She graduated from Southern New Hampshire University with a degree in English and creative writing. When she isn't writing, she travels the globe to gain experiences for her next book. To learn more about E.J., click here.  

Listen here to our interview with Karla Huebner (In Search of the Magic Theater, Regal House, June 2022). We discuss this novel's quick appearance (3 months to write) but long gestation period (8 years to publish), what it's like to work with a small press, her self-imposed production goals, and how her own life's journey often informs that of her characters. And stay tuned to the end to learn about her unique household pets. Karla Huebner has lived on a boat and worked in factories, offices, theater, publishing, oil refineries, private investigation, and adolescent drug rehab; she is now professor emerita of Art History at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio. Over the years, her fiction has appeared in such places as the Northwest Review, Colorado State Review, Magic Realism, Fantasy Macabre, Weave, and Opossum. Her books include the novels In Search of the Magic Theater (Regal House, 2022)--a first-prize winner in Chanticleer's 2022 Mark Twain contest and currently a Reader's Choice finalist—and Too Early to Know Who's Winning (Black Rose, 2023), as well as the prize-winning study Magnetic Woman: Toyen and the Surrealist Erotic (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2020). Her collection Heartwood was a finalist for the 2020 Raz-Shumaker award. She is a member of AAUP, WFWA, and SCBWI, as well as several scholarly organizations. To learn more about Karla, click here.

Our guest this week is Jen Craven (Best Years of Your Life, Indie published, August 2022). Listen in as we discuss why she decided on an academic setting for her debut, the pluses of indie publishing, the importance of professionalism when it comes to book covers, how she used comparable authors to formulate her own marketing plan, and how she's found her niche writing about characters where one decision changes everything. Jen Craven is the author of emotional and suspenseful women's fiction, stories where one decision changes everything. A former college instructor, she loves dark campus novels, which led to her contemporary debut, “Best Years of Your Life.” Her writing style blends poignancy with drama to create what-would-you-do narratives of the human experience. In March 2023, she signed a 2-book deal with Bookouture, scheduled for publication in fall 2023 and spring 2024. Aside from fiction, Jen has personal essay bylines in national outlets, including The Washington Post, Huffington Post, Today's Parent, Scary Mommy and many more. She writes from northwestern Pennsylvania, where she lives with her husband and three children. When not working on her books, she can be found thrift shopping, taking long walks, and beating her kids in backgammon.   To learn more about Jen, click here.

This week's podcast features Robin Maass (The Walled Garden, Spark Press, May 2022). We discuss MFA programs and how they often neglect to teach story structure, and how, as a result, she had to move from “discovering the book” or pantsing to realizing you need stepping stones along the way. We explore how every book has some kind of mystery at its core and how important it is to spend time figuring out what kind of story you want to tell. Finally, we delve into social media and the appeal of Instagram as a platform. Robin Farrar Maass is a lifelong writer and reader who grew up in western Washington and fell in love with England on her first trip when she was twenty-two. She enjoys tending her messy wants-to-be-an English garden, painting watercolors, and traveling. The Walled Garden is her first novel, and she's already at work on her next novel set in England. She has an MFA from the Rainier Writing Workshop at Pacific Lutheran University and lives in Redmond, Washington with her husband and two highly opinionated Siamese cats. Robin Farrar Maass is a lifelong writer and reader who grew up in western Washington and fell in love with England on her first trip when she was twenty-two. She enjoys tending her messy wants-to-be-an English garden, painting watercolors, and traveling. The Walled Garden is her first novel, and she's already at work on her next novel set in England. She has an MFA from the Rainier Writing Workshop at Pacific Lutheran University and lives in Redmond, Washington with her husband and two highly opinionated Siamese cats. To learn more about Robin, click here.  

Our guest this week is Jody Herpin (Relative Consequences, Indie Published, March 2022). Jody always starts any new writing project by getting to know her characters, which includes not only a lengthy questionnaire, but a “face to face” interview, and a visual portfolio, including facial features, how they dress, and how they move. Listen to hear the journey of her debut, her best advice to newer writers, and why querying too soon can backfire. Jody Herpin is an award-winning author who writes with a Southern accent. A wife, mom, and Grams, she is an animal lover, painter, avid reader, and big fan of the Braves and Georgia Tech. Born in Savannah, Georgia, she currently lives in Metro Atlanta with her husband, Mike, and her dog, Bella. In her writing, Jody uses pieces of her own life experience to create colorful characters, placing them in settings she has either visited or called home. Her novel, RELATIVE CONSEQUENCES, is set in Atlanta and Bonita Springs, Florida. Jody's next project, the first novel in a series, takes place in the fictitious town of Sequoyah, which lies in a valley between the mountains of North Georgia. The story revolves around the Campbell family, whose youngest daughter has been missing for four years, and whose oldest daughter, a GBI Special Agent goes home to investigate a gruesome discovery at an ancient Cherokee Indian burial site. To learn more about Jody, click here.  

This week's podcast features Carol Orange (A Discerning Eye, Cavan Bridge Press, October 2020). Carol's background in both art (art books in London, art dealer in Boston) and publishing (editorial assistant at a Big Five house) provided plenty of ideas for her art heist novel centering around the looting of 13 masterpieces from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum over 30 years ago. We discuss how she learned the craft of writing, the importance of networking and community, and how to handle self-doubt as well as the insights (and fun)you can have during the revision process. Carol Orange is the award-winning author or A Discerning Eye. The novel was inspired by the world's largest unsolved theft at Boston's Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. Carol has worked in the art world for more than twenty years. She began as a research editor on art books in London and later became an art dealer in Boston. She has an MBA from Simmons University and worked as a marketing manager at the Polaroid Corporation. Along with concert pianist Virginia Eskin who played Chopin's music, she read excerpts from George Sand's novels in three salons at the French Library in Boston.    To learn more about Carol, click here.

 This week's podcast features Suzanne Mattaboni (Once in a Lifetime, Touchpoint Press, March 2023). There's much more to 1980's America than disco balls and Andy Warhol and in Mattaboni's debut novel we get to explore the avant-garde art scene, New Wave culture, and what it was like for a young woman trying to figure out what she wants in life amid the turmoil and energy of a burgeoning new era, shaped by young people—their clothes, their music, their boisterous embrace of life. Hear the unusual sub-groups on Facebook Suzanne has used to publicize her book and the important role networking has played in her success.  Suzanne Mattaboni is a Pushcart Prize-nominated writer of women's fiction and horror. She's a podcaster, Newsweek Expert Forum contributor, and former Newsday reporter. Her debut novel Once in a Lifetime, winner of a Pencraft award and a Paris Book Festival award, is available on Amazon. Suzanne has been published in Seventeen, The Huffington Post, Mysterious Ways, Guideposts.com, Motherwell, and Child. Her work has appeared in anthologies including the Chicken Soup for the Soul series, the ‘80s-themed Pizza Parties and Poltergeists, the Scars anthology, and the upcoming new wave concert “fanthology” Howard Jones – We're In This Together.  Suzanne is a past winner of Seventeen magazine's Art and Fiction Contest and was named one of Lehigh Valley Business' 2022 “Women of Influence.. To learn more about Suzanne, go to https://www.suzannemattaboni.com 

Our guest this week is Linda MacKillop (The Forgotten Life of Eva Gordon, Kregel Publications May 2022). Linda took a rough draft she'd worked on for years into her new MFA program and emerged with a polished manuscript, including a central character often likened to Olive Ketteridge. We discuss what it's like when your protagonist is both difficult and suffering from memory loss, (which of course makes her unreliable) and how switching from first person to third person close made that task more manageable. She also shares marketing tips about interfacing with local community resources and how she didn't avoid, but embraced using her faith to enrich the story's themes.  Linda MacKillop writes fiction for both adults and young people, and creative nonfiction. Her articles and essays have appeared in books, magazines, and literary journals such as Under the Sun and Relief Journal. The Forgotten Life of Eva Gordon is her first novel. Hotel Oscar Mike Echo, her middle-grade novel, releases in June 2023. She earned her M.F.A. in Creative Writing at the Rainier Writing Workshop in Tacoma, Washington. As the mother of four adult sons, she and her husband live in an empty nest outside of Chicago. To learn more about Linda, click here.

Our podcast guest this week is Grace Marcus (Visible Signs, Touchpoint Press, May 2022). Grace, a debut author at 75 years old, shares lessons she learned along the line, including not signing with the first agent who makes an offer to trusting your gut when it comes to major rewrites. We discuss her marketing initiatives which include talks at senior centers and short writing workshops in exchange for a book purchase at libraries as well as her writing process, which she describes as “creep, creep, creep, lurch.”  Grace Marcus holds a Master in Theatre Arts from Montclair University. Her debut novel, Visible Signs, published by TouchPoint Press in May, 2022. An early version of the book was a semifinalist in the William Faulkner-William Wisdom Creative Writing Competition.  She has been an actress, waitress, social worker, newspaper editor, and radio and cable TV show producer to name a few of the byways on her road to becoming a writer. Her work has been published in Philadelphia Stories, The Bucks County Writer Magazine, Adanna Literary Journal, TheWritersEye, Women on Writing, Me First Magazine, Carolina Woman, and Embark Literary Journal. A Brooklyn native, she has lived on both coasts, and now calls North Carolina home where she is working on a new novel. To learn more about Grace, click here.  

This week's podcast guest is RLynn Johnson (Cry of the Heart, MilSpeak Books, May 2022). Taking inspiration from her years spent in the JAG Corps of the DOD, Robin fashioned a story of long-term female friendship and her first-hand experiences of being a female officer in the Army into her debut novel and then through a networking contact, found a publisher who specializes in stories told by military personnel, under the non-profit MilSpeak Foundation. But now that she's caught the writing bug, she's trying out the cozy mystery genre for her next endeavor.  RLynn Johnson, a military brat herself, is a 20-year veteran of the U.S. Army Judge Advocate General's Corps. Over the course of her military career, she served in California, the Republic of Korea, Alaska, Maryland, Kansas, Virginia, Florida, Washington, DC, and the United Kingdom. She now works as an international law attorney for the Department of Defense and lives with her rescue dogs, Dot and Dash, on the Pinellas County beaches. Johnson's debut novel, Cry of the Heart, was released by MilSpeak Books in May 2022. She is also a contributing author to Invisible Veterans: What Happens When Military Women Become Civilians Again, edited by Dr. Kate Hendricks Thomas and Dr. Kyleanne Hunter (2019). To learn more about Robin, click here.  

This week's guest is Janis Robinson Daly (The Unlocked Path, Black Rose Writing, August 2022). March is Women's History Month and how better to celebrate this popular sub-genre of women's fiction than with Janis, an active member of the WFWA Facebook sub-group and a debut writer whose great-great grandfather inspired her fictionalized story of the first women's medical college at the turn of the century. Listen as well to our discussion of how libraries are an untapped sales avenue for authors and learn where to download Janis' curated list of 31 books featuring research-rich stories of women who made history. . Inspired by learning an ancestor was a founder of the Woman's Medical College of PA, Janis Robinson Daly felt the stories of the college's graduates needed to be told. With a love of history, she dove into research and began writing, balancing authenticity and details with a flair to create emotional connections to fictional characters. While her family has roots in Philadelphia, she is a Boston girl through and through, from her accent to the New England Patriots flag hanging from her house. She graduated with a B.A. in Psychology from Wheaton College MA, at the time, an all-women's college. At Wheaton, she developed a fond appreciation of supportive female relationships and a heightened awareness of female-centric issues. Both directed her writing of The Unlocked Path. Splitting her time between Cape Cod, New Hampshire, and Florida, a tablet becomes her Kindle library and writing desk, packed into a travel bag for reading and writing wherever she might land. More adventures beckon her to document other women in history whose stories need to be discovered.   To learn more about Janis, click here.

This week's podcast is with Erin Litteken (The Memory Keeper of Kyiv, Boldwood Books, May 2022). We discuss the serendipitous timeliness of her book, which examines the tactic of Holodomor (or  forced starvation) which Russia utilized during their invasion of Ukraine in the 1930's, her experiences with a newer small press based in England, her best advice to beginning writers, and her love of the rabbit hole called research. Added bonus: hear her formula for getting 5500+ reviews on Amazon in less than ten months.      Erin Litteken is an international bestselling author of historical fiction. Her debut, THE MEMORY KEEPER OF KYIV, has been translated into fourteen languages and was the 2022 winner of the She Reads Best Historical Fiction Award. With a degree in history and a passion for research, Erin draws inspiration from her family roots, and in particular, her great-grandmother's stories about life in Ukraine before, during, and after WWII. She lives outside of St. Louis with her husband and two children.  To learn more about Erin, click here.  

This week's podcast is with Melanie Mitzner (Slow Reveal, Inanna Publishing, May 2022). Melanie started her writing career as a playwright and screenwriter but switched to the novel form for this story of an artist examining her life choices in 1990's New York. We discuss her decision to print with Inanna (renowned feminist press), differences when you publish in Canada, the research needed to capture a specific time period, and what's involved in creating characters who differ from you in terms of gender, heritage, and lifestyle. The novel Slow Reveal, was published by York University's Inanna Publications on May 3, 2022, is a Best of Women's Fiction Debut 2022 and Fiction Bestseller at Berkeley distributor SPD Books. An excerpt of her novel Too Good To Be True was published in the Harrington Lesbian Quarterly.  An Edward Albee fellow for her screenplay Zero Gravity, she was a finalist in the Writers Guild East Foundation Fellowships for her screenplay Dodge and Burn. Her screenplays In The Name of Love and Out to Lunch were finalists in the Houston Film Festival Screenwriting Competition. She was awarded fiction grants from Vermont Studio Center and Summer Literary Seminars . As a journalist, she covered the tech industry, television production and visual effects.  Her work is published in Wine Spectator, Gay and Lesbian Review,Vol1Brooklyn, Bloom and San Francisco Bay Times. Interviews and excerpts are on Open-Book, the syndicated Rainbow Country radio show, Glad Day Bookshop TV and Hasty Booklist. She's a member of the Writers Union of Canada, ELAN and Quebec Writers Federation.   To learn more about Melanie, click here.

Listen to this week's podcast with our guest Karen Winn (Our Little World, Dutton, May 2022). Karen's an example of how helpful writing conferences can be as she met her dream agent at a Muse and the Marketplace event in Boston and then worked with her on an extensive revision before going out on sub. Hear what it's like to publish through an imprint of the Big Five, including cover design, titling (hint: they may change it), and book promotion and how part of Karen's journey has been homing in on what works best for her in terms of both writing process and generating ideas. Karen Winn's debut novel, Our Little World, was published in May 2022 with Dutton/ Penguin Random House.  Having been a nurse for decades, she is now pursuing writing as a second career.  Karen's short stories and essays have appeared in Hippocampus, Lithub, Writers Digest, and elsewhere.  Originally from New Jersey, where she obtained a low-residency MFA from Fairleigh Dickinson University, she now lives in Boston with her husband and children.       To learn more about Karen, click here.

This week's podcast is with Judith Brenner (The Moments Between Dreams, Greenleaf Book Group Press, May 2022).  An historical fiction which encompasses not only the polio epidemic but also issues of domestic abuse, Judith's novel is a homage to both her mother and grandmother as well as the sacrifices women made in the years directly after the war. We discuss her publisher's process for picking the book's title, the questions she's asked most often at book clubs, and the quirky way she makes money as a writer. Judith Brenner is a freelance journalist, and a book editor with her own company, Creative Lakes Media, LLC. She owns the national Sharpeners' Report and publishes related sharpening non-fiction books about how-to sharpen blades, from beauty tools to clipper blades. Judith completed a certificate program for an MFA from the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop. She earned her MBA in Marketing from the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, and her undergraduate degree from Columbia College in Chicago, where she was raised. Her favorite seasonal writing desks are at a cabin in Minnesota and in California's Coachella Valley. Travel and gardening, reading and enjoying family are her greatest joys. To learn more about Judith, click here.  

This week's podcast is with Eileen Brill (A Letter In The Wall, Spark Press, May 2022). We discuss how fate dropped her story's inciting incident into her lap during a home renovation, the Facebook group her husband cultivated that wound up propelling her book to Amazon heights, and how she's learned an important lesson – that authors need to embrace being an active cheerleader for their own books.  . Eileen Grace Brill is a painter, writer, and sign language interpreter who grew up outside of Philadelphia and graduated from Carnegie Mellon with a BS in economics. She has written professionally for the restaurant, hotel, and commercial real estate industries. A Letter in the Wall is her first novel, though she has been a writer all her life; beginning at age four, when she wrote a poem (filled with spelling errors!) for her babysitter. Eileen's short story “Christmas Angel” appeared in the international literary magazine Beyond Words in 2021. She and her husband, Eli, raised their sons in her hometown of Elkins Park, Pennsylvania, where they still live, along with their two adopted mutts, Athena and Gaia. To learn more about Eileen, click here.