Podcast appearances and mentions of kathleen west

This week, we're in Alabama discussing the mysterious death of an Only Fans model. Then, we'll talk about twins who ended up on trial for the murder of a doctor. Buckle up and join us on this dark and twisted ride through the Yellowhammer State. You may now join us on⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Patreon⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ or ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠buy us a ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Cocktail⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Be sure to subscribe on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Apple⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and leave a review, or, email us at unitedstatesofmurder@gmail.com Follow us on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Facebook⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, and⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Twitter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠! Watch: Finding Betty (on Tubi and Apple TV) Sources: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Oxygen, AP News, CBS 42, Gadsen Times, Oxygen, WAFF 48 News, Betty Wilson Documentary Music by ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Pixabay⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/unitedstatesofmurder/support

In this interview, Paige and I discuss Only Love Can Hurt Like This, how she came up with the idea for this one, publishing her first book in the United States, her connection to Indianapolis, conducting research on farming, mental health, sibling relationships, and much more. Paige's recommended reads are: Happy Place by Emily Henry The Wake-Up Call by Beth O'Leary Support the podcast by becoming a Page Turner on Patreon.  Other ways to support the podcast can be found here.     Only Love Can Hurt Like This can be purchased at my Bookshop storefront.      If you enjoyed this episode and want to listen to more episodes, try Amy Mason Doan, Lyn Liao Butler, Saumya Dave, Kathleen West, and Steven Rowley. Want to submit a Read-Alike Request for the podcast? Submit it here. Connect with me on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this interview, Megan and I discuss Super Bloom, her publishing journey with Zibby Books, leaning into the romance genre, portraying grief including the grief experienced for what might have been, writing a book within a book and how that developed for her, and much more. Megan's recommended reads are: Hester by Laurie Lico Albanese I Have Some Questions for You by Rebecca Makkai Euphoria by Lily King Support the podcast by becoming a Page Turner on Patreon.  Other ways to support the podcast can be found here.     Super Bloom can be purchased at my Bookshop storefront.      If you enjoyed this episode and want to listen to more episodes, try Amy Mason Doan, Lyn Liao Butler, Saumya Dave, Kathleen West, and Steven Rowley. Want to submit a Read-Alike Request for the podcast? Submit it here. Connect with me on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this interview, Laura and I discuss The Daydreams, her inspiration for the book, the fun research she conducted, deciding to have Kat tell the story, the stunning cover, how often young stars flame out and the role media plays in this, and much more. Laura's recommended reads are: Vera Wong's Unsolicited Guide to Murder by Jesse Q. Sutanto How Not to Drown in a Glass of Water by Angie Cruz My Read-Alike Request Recommendations for Beyond That, the Sea by Laura Spence-Ash: Foster by Claire Keegan Once We Were Home by Jennifer Rosner News of the World by Paulette Jiles Support the podcast by becoming a Page Turner on Patreon.  Other ways to support the podcast can be found here.     The Daydreams can be purchased at my Bookshop storefront.      If you enjoyed this episode and want to listen to more episodes, try Amy Mason Doan, Lyn Liao Butler, Saumya Dave, Kathleen West, and Steven Rowley. Want to submit a Read-Alike Request for the podcast? Submit it here. Connect with me on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this interview, Brenda and I discuss The Audrey Hepburn Estate, the concept of home, writing about starlets and an heirloom item of theirs, indulging a list of Easter eggs at the back of her books, creating the estate as a character in her novel, and much more. Brenda's recommended reads are: Bad Summer People by Emma Rosenblum The Fiction Writer by Jillian Cantor My Read-Alike Request Recommendations for Wrong Place Wrong Time by Gillian McAllister: All the Missing Girls by Megan Miranda These Silent Woods by Kimi Cunningham Grant Before She Disappeared by Lisa Gardner Support the podcast by becoming a Page Turner on Patreon.  Other ways to support the podcast can be found here.     The Audrey Hepburn Estate can be purchased at my Bookshop storefront.      If you enjoyed this episode and want to listen to more episodes, try Amy Mason Doan, Lyn Liao Butler, Saumya Dave, Kathleen West, and Steven Rowley. Want to submit a Read-Alike Request for the podcast? Submit it here. Connect with me on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this interview, Lauren and I discuss I'll Stop the World, being selected by Mindy Kaling's new imprint, time travel and how she incorporated it into her story, the 1980s, selecting character names, source of the title and how song lyrics can be used in book titles, and much more. Lauren's recommended reads are: She Is a Haunting by Trang Thanh Tran Lunar Love by Lauren Kung Jessen Support the podcast by becoming a Page Turner on Patreon.  Other ways to support the podcast can be found here.     If you enjoyed this episode and want to listen to more episodes, try Amy Mason Doan, Lyn Liao Butler, Saumya Dave, Kathleen West, and Steven Rowley. I'll Stop the World can be purchased at my Bookshop storefront.      Want to submit a Read-Alike Request for the podcast? Submit it here. Connect with me on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this interview, Jane and I discuss The Society of Shame, how she decided to write this story, weaving in the themes of scandal, cancel culture, media influence, online shaming and politics, crafting a mother/daughter tale, why the story takes place over 28 days, and much more. Jane's recommended reads are: Terra Nova by Henriette Lazaridis The River at Night by Erika Ferencik The Other Family Doctor by Karen Fine Support the podcast by becoming a Page Turner on Patreon.  Other ways to support the podcast can be found here.     If you enjoyed this episode and want to listen to more episodes, try Amy Mason Doan, Lyn Liao Butler, Saumya Dave, Kathleen West, and Steven Rowley. The Society of Shame can be purchased at my Bookshop storefront.      Ask Me Anything question for me for April's episode? Submit it here. Want to submit a Read-Alike Request for the podcast? Submit it here. Connect with me on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this interview, Colleen and I discuss The Mostly True Story of Tanner and Louise, how her grandmother and "Thelma and Louise" inspired this story, the value of connecting with older generations, what it means to be a woman in today's world, Parkinson's, and much more. Colleen's recommended reads are: The Woman with the Cure by Lynn Cullen The Violin Conspiracy by Brendan Slocumb Just the Nicest Couple by Mary Kubica Support the podcast by becoming a Page Turner on Patreon.  Other ways to support the podcast can be found here.     If you enjoyed this episode and want to listen to more episodes, try Amy Mason Doan, Lyn Liao Butler, Saumya Dave, Kathleen West, and Steven Rowley. The Mostly True Story of Tanner and Louise can be purchased at my Bookshop storefront.      Ask Me Anything question for me for April's episode? Submit it here. Want to submit a Read-Alike Request for the podcast? Submit it here. Connect with me on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this interview, Balli and I discuss Now You See Us, how she decided to write this story, having her book selected as Marie Claire's March Book Club pick, tempering some of the stories she learned to keep the book from being too dark, how living a variety of places informs her writing, including a mystery element in the story, and much more. Balli's recommended reads are: The Theory of (Not Quite) Everything by Kara Gnodde All This Could Be Different by Sarah Thankam Mathews The Vibrant Years by Sonali Dev Support the podcast by becoming a Page Turner on Patreon.  Other ways to support the podcast can be found here.     If you enjoyed this episode and want to listen to more episodes, try Amy Mason Doan, Lyn Liao Butler, Saumya Dave, Kathleen West, and Steven Rowley. Now You See Us can be purchased at my Bookshop storefront.      Ask Me Anything question for me for April's episode? Submit it here. Want to submit a Read-Alike Request for the podcast? Submit it here. Connect with me on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this interview, Nora and I discuss Competitive Grieving, her own experience with competitive grieving, how writing the book was cathartic, the format for the book, how the beauty of writing a novel is being able to create an entirely fictional world, the universal experience of what happens in the aftermath of death, and much more. Nora's recommended reads are: Candy House by Jennifer Egan Heartbreaker by Sarah MacLean Book Lovers by Emily Henry The Last Thing He Told Me by Laura Dave Support the podcast by becoming a Page Turner on Patreon.  Other ways to support the podcast can be found here.     If you enjoyed this episode and want to listen to more episodes, try Amy Mason Doan, Lyn Liao Butler, Saumya Dave, Kathleen West, and Steven Rowley. Competitive Grieving can be purchased at my Bookshop storefront.        Bookclubs is the premier organizational tool for new and existing book clubs and also provides great resources for individual readers to discover new reads or find a book club to join. Check them out! Connect with me on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this interview, Ann and I discuss The Storyteller's Death, how the book is a love letter to Puerto Rico and her family there, the importance of including the sense of smell when creating an immersive setting, why she set the book in the 1970s, her incredible opening sentence, magical realism as a symbol of hope, and much more. Ann's recommended reads are: Half-Blown Rose by Leesa Cross-Smith The Daughter of Doctor Moreau by Silvia Moreno-Garcia The Devil Takes You Home by Gabino Iglesias Ann's Spotify Playlist for the book. Support the podcast by becoming a Page Turner on Patreon.  Other ways to support the podcast can be found here.     If you enjoyed this episode and want to listen to more episodes, try Amy Mason Doan, Lyn Liao Butler, Saumya Dave, Kathleen West, and Steven Rowley. The Storyteller's Death can be purchased at my Bookshop storefront.        Bookclubs is the premier organizational tool for new and existing book clubs and also provides great resources for individual readers to discover new reads or find a book club to join. Check them out! Connect with me on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this interview, Elyssa and I discuss The Most Likely Club, her inspiration for this book, incorporating 90s nostalgia, how she tackled drafting four distinct women, the highlight of writing this book, which character she identifies with the most, and much more. Elyssa's recommended reads are: Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus Support the podcast by becoming a Page Turner on Patreon.  Other ways to support the podcast can be found here.     If you enjoyed this episode and want to listen to more episodes, try Amy Mason Doan, Lyn Liao Butler, Saumya Dave, Kathleen West, and Steven Rowley. Bookclubs is the premier organizational tool for new and existing book clubs and also provides great resources for individual readers to discover new reads or find a book club to join. Check them out! The Most Likely Club can be purchased at my Bookshop.org storefront. Connect with me on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today my guest is Kathleen West, author of Home or Away, an incisive look at toxic friendships, old alliances, and over competitive parenting in organized youth and elite hockey as two former Olympic hopeful pass along their love of the game-and the rest of their baggage-to the next generation.

In this interview, Angie and I discuss How Not to Drown in a Glass of Water, how humor can help a difficult situation, the importance of storytelling, how she decided on the book's unique format, visiting a psychic as part of her research, and much more. Angie's recommended reads are: The Man Who Could Move Clouds by Ingrid Rojas Contreras Roses, in the Mouth of a Lion by Bushra Rehman Support the podcast by becoming a Page Turner on Patreon.  Other ways to support the podcast can be found here.     If you enjoyed this episode and want to listen to more episodes, try Amy Mason Doan, Lyn Liao Butler, Saumya Dave, Kathleen West, and Steven Rowley. How Not to Drown in a Glass of Water can be purchased at my Bookshop storefront.        Bookclubs is the premier organizational tool for new and existing book clubs and also provides great resources for individual readers to discover new reads or find a book club to join. Check them out! Connect with me on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On today's episode Jill is joined by Kathleen West to discuss her new book Home or Away. Kathleen is a hockey mom herself and discusses how her own experiences raising two hockey players played a role in her book, along with writing complicated female friendships and one character with zero redeeming qualities. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this interview, Chris and I discuss A Gracious Neighbor, the short story that inspired her novel, how we never really know what goes on behind closed doors, why she created her own definition of gracious for the book, her writing process, mean girls and how some never grow out of that phase, and much more. Chris's recommended reads are: Still True by Maggie Ginsberg Ghost Music by An Yu Fellowship Point by Alice Elliott Dark Check out my Summer 2022 Reading List. Support the podcast by becoming a Page Turner on Patreon.  Other ways to support the podcast can be found here.     If you enjoyed this episode and want to listen to more episodes, try Amy Mason Doan, Lyn Liao Butler, Saumya Dave, Kathleen West, and Steven Rowley. Bookclubs is the premier organizational tool for new and existing book clubs and also provides great resources for individual readers to discover new reads or find a book club to join. Check them out! A Gracious Neighbor can be purchased at my Bookshop.org storefront. Connect with me on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this interview, Carley and I discuss Every Summer After, setting a book in Canada, choosing Barry's Bay as the book's locale and the response by residents, what surprised her the most writing this book, tackling her sophomore novel, why this book is resonating with so many people, and much more. Carley's recommended reads are: The No-Show by Beth O'Leary A Hundred Other Girls by Iman Hariri-Kia Check out my Summer 2022 Reading List. Bookclubs is the premier organizational tool for new and existing book clubs and also provides great resources for individual readers to discover new reads or find a book club to join. Check them out! Support the podcast by becoming a Page Turner on Patreon.  Other ways to support the podcast can be found here.     If you enjoyed this episode and want to listen to more episodes, try Amy Mason Doan, Lyn Liao Butler, Saumya Dave, Kathleen West, and Steven Rowley. Every Summer After can be purchased at my Bookshop.org storefront. Connect with me on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this interview, Jamie and I discuss Gilt, the way guilt permeates the story, the inspiration for this book and for Pavlin and Company, the hardest character for her to write, the relevance of the green cover, how book covers mark a particular moment in time, and much more. Jamie's recommended reads are: On Gin Lane by Brooke Lea Foster The Summer Place by Jennifer Weiner The Hotel Nantucket by Elin Hilderbrand Check out my Summer 2022 Reading List. Support the podcast by becoming a Page Turner on Patreon.  Other ways to support the podcast can be found here.     If you enjoyed this episode and want to listen to more episodes, try Amy Mason Doan, Lyn Liao Butler, Saumya Dave, Kathleen West, and Steven Rowley. Gilt can be purchased at my Bookshop.org storefront. Connect with me on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this interview, Jane and I discuss A Shoe Story, her writing process, choosing the shoes for each chapter of this novel, how her book was selected by Elin Hilderbrand for her July Literati Book Club selection, getting thrown out of an Upper East Side Mom's group, looking forward versus focusing on the past, leaning into the shoe angle for marketing this book, and much more. Jane's recommended reads are: The Hotel Nantucket by Elin Hilderbrand Meant to Be Mine by Hannah Orenstein In Her Boots by K.J. Dell'Antonia Check out my Summer 2022 Reading List. Support the podcast by becoming a Page Turner on Patreon.  Other ways to support the podcast can be found here.     If you enjoyed this episode and want to listen to more episodes, try Amy Mason Doan, Lyn Liao Butler, Saumya Dave, Kathleen West, and Steven Rowley. A Shoe Story can be purchased at my Bookshop storefront.        Connect with me on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this interview, Eleanor and I discuss Any Other Family, writing a book centered around adoption and the issues the process raises, crafting character-driven stories focused on why people act the way they do, using the Enneagram types to help flesh out characters, weaving humor into her novels, why she is not on social media, and much more. Eleanor's recommended reads are: Tell Me Everything: The Story of a Private Investigation by Erika Krouse The Foundling by Ann Leary Red Hook Road by Ayelet Waldman The Myth of Surrender by Kelly O'Connor McNees Support the podcast by becoming a Page Turner on Patreon.  Other ways to support the podcast can be found here.     Check out my July Buzz Reads picks and my Summer 2022 Reading List. If you enjoyed this episode and want to listen to more episodes, try Margarita Montimore, Lyn Liao Butler, Saumya Dave, Kathleen West, and Steven Rowley. Any Other Family can be purchased at my Bookshop storefront.        Connect with me on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this interview, Margarita and I discuss Acts of Violet, melding her love of stories about unresolved disappearances and those set in the showbiz world, exploring why the world of magic is so male-dominated, writing in a multi-media format and helping design the interior of the book, how the title and cover came about, and much more. Margarita's recommended reads are: Jobs for Girls with Artistic Flair by June Gervais The Bartender's Cure by Wesley Straton The Likeness by Tana French The School for Good Mothers by Jessamine Chan The Other Black Girl by Zakiya Dalila Harris The Echo Wife by Sarah Gailey Support the podcast by becoming a Page Turner on Patreon.  Other ways to support the podcast can be found here.     Check out my July Buzz Reads picks and my Summer 2022 Reading List. If you enjoyed this episode and want to listen to more episodes, try Amy Mason Doan, Lyn Liao Butler, Saumya Dave, Kathleen West, and Steven Rowley. Acts of Violet can be purchased at my Bookshop storefront.        Connect with me on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We are so excited to welcome Award-Winning author, Kathleen West to our podcast!  Born and raised in Minnesota and a school teacher with more than 20 years' experience, Kathleen is particularly interested in the topics of motherhood, ambition, competitive parenting, and the elusiveness of work-life balance. She is the author of 3 best-selling novels, which have all been published during a pandemic, with her most recent published in March 2022 called Home or Away. All of her novels are impressed with real life experiences. She is a self described grinder and as you will hear so unbelievably kind, witty, and inspiring. We explore the importance of normalizing failures, embracing human moments, and some of the life lessons for both adults and children alike. Learn more about Kathleen West at Inspired to learn more about writing like Kathleen and live in the Minneapolis area? The Loft Classes: https://loft.org/   Our Non-Profit Spotlight is near and dear to us. Please take a moment of your time to learn more: My PowerPak- Cure Acute Myeloid Leukemia NOW

In this interview, Alison, Bradeigh and I discuss The Beach Trap, how they came up with the name Ali Brady and why they chose to write under a pen name versus their own names, creating their own take on The Parent Trap, the way they approach writing together, their great cover, what's next for them, and much more. Bradeigh's recommended reads are: The Bodyguard by Katherine Center The Unsinkable Greta James by Jennifer E. Smith How to Fake It in Hollywood by Ava Wilder Imposter by Bradeigh Godfrey Alison's recommended reads are: When We Let Go by Rochelle Weinstein Something Wilder by Christina Lauren Meant to Be by Emily Giffin Love, Lists, and Fancy Ships by Sarah Grinder Ruiz Woman on Fire by Lisa Barr The Beach Trap is on my Summer 2022 Reading List and June Buzz Reads picks list. Support the podcast by becoming a Page Turner on Patreon.  Other ways to support the podcast can be found here.     If you enjoyed this episode and want to listen to more episodes, try Amy Mason Doan, Lyn Liao Butler, Saumya Dave, Kathleen West, and Steven Rowley. The Beach Trap can be purchased at my Bookshop storefront.        Connect with me on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this interview, Annabel and I discuss Nora Goes Off Script, how Nora is resonating with so many readers, the great reception the book is getting on Bookstagram, how titles send signals to readers about a book's genre, the difference in writing YA and nonfiction verses adult fiction, and much more. Annabel's recommended reads are: The Matchmaker's Gift by Lynda Cohen Loigman The Frederick Sisters Are Living the Dream by Jeannie Zusy The Sweet Spot by Amy Poeppel Check out my Summer 2022 Reading List and the June Buzz Reads picks list. Support the podcast by becoming a Page Turner on Patreon.  Other ways to support the podcast can be found here.     If you enjoyed this episode and want to listen to more episodes, try Amy Mason Doan, Lyn Liao Butler, Saumya Dave, Kathleen West, and Steven Rowley. Nora Goes Off Script can be purchased at my Bookshop storefront.        Connect with me on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this interview, Clare and I discuss Iona Iverson's Rules for Commuting, the inspiration for the story and Iona, her fascination with intergenerational relationships, designing the plot around the train stops on the Waterloo/Hampton Court line, how both the cover and title are different for the U.S. and the U.K. editions, and much more. Clare's recommended read is Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus. Check out my Summer 2022 Reading List and the June Buzz Reads picks list. Support the podcast by becoming a Page Turner on Patreon.  Other ways to support the podcast can be found here.     If you enjoyed this episode and want to listen to more episodes, try Amy Mason Doan, Lyn Liao Butler, Saumya Dave, Kathleen West, and Steven Rowley. Iona Iverson's Rules for Commuting can be purchased at my Bookshop storefront.        Connect with me on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this interview, Marie and I discuss The Evening Hero, humanizing her main character, her trip to North Korea that rounded out details for the book, what surprised her the most when writing this book, the complicated process of finding a title,, and much more. Marie's recommended reads are: Virology by Joseph Osmundson Devil House by John Darnielle Made in Korea by Jeremy Holt Support the podcast by becoming a Page Turner on Patreon.  Other ways to support the podcast can be found here.     Check out my Summer 2022 Reading List. If you enjoyed this episode and want to listen to more episodes, try Amy Mason Doan, Lyn Liao Butler, Saumya Dave, Kathleen West, and Steven Rowley. The Evening Hero can be purchased at my Bookshop storefront.        Connect with me on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This episode begins with an author interview, Kathleen West, is today's guest. Immediately following is The guide to some of the new books coming out the week of May 31, 2022. You can always contact the Book Bistro team by searching @BookBistroPodcast on facebook, or visiting: https://www.facebook.com/BookBistroPodcast/ You can also send an email to: TheBookBistroPodcast@gmail.com For more information on the podcast and the team behind it, please visit: http://anchor.fm/book-bistro

In this interview, Amy and I discuss The Honeybee Emeralds, the inspiration for the fictional necklace in the book, avoiding information dumps, the unique situation of living as an expat in a foreign country, her favorite and least favorite characters to write, and much more. Amy's recommended reads are: Cheat Day by Liv Stratman Dave Shastri's Last Day by Kirthana Ramisetti Shit Cassandra Saw by Gwen E. Kirby Support the podcast by becoming a Page Turner on Patreon.  Other ways to support the podcast can be found here.     Check out my Summer 2022 Reading List. If you enjoyed this episode and want to listen to more episodes, try Amy Mason Doan, Lyn Liao Butler, Saumya Dave, Kathleen West, and Steven Rowley. The Honeybee Emeralds can be purchased at my Bookshop storefront.        Connect with me on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Episode one ninety two - part three Evelyn zoomed in with Kathleen West to talk about hockey moms, reading Goodreads reviews and HOME OR AWAY, Kathleen's newest novel which was a blast to read!

In this interview, Michelle and I discuss Search, her inspiration for the story, the format for telling the tale, the characters that were the easiest and hardest to write, how her cover came about, the way her characters developed as she wrote them, and much more. Michelle's recommended reads are: A Glass of Blessings by Barbara Pym My Antonia by Willa Cather Support the podcast by becoming a Page Turner on Patreon.  Other ways to support the podcast can be found here.     If you enjoyed this episode and want to listen to more episodes, try Amy Mason Doan, Lyn Liao Butler, Saumya Dave, Kathleen West, and Steven Rowley. Search can be purchased at my Bookshop storefront.        Connect with me on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this interview, Christine and I discuss The Patron Saint of Second Chances, her inspiration for this story, when she knew she wanted to be a writer, her unusual publishing journey, creating a tremendous sense of community in her book and why that is so important, and much more. Christine's recommended reads are: The Twyford Code by Janice Hallett Better Luck Next Time by Julia Claiborne Johnson Support the podcast by becoming a Page Turner on Patreon.  Other ways to support the podcast can be found here.     If you enjoyed this episode and want to listen to more episodes, try Amy Mason Doan, Lyn Liao Butler, Saumya Dave, Kathleen West, and Steven Rowley. The Patron Saint of Second Chances can be purchased at my Bookshop storefront.        Connect with me on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ashley and I discuss Fool Me Once, how second-chance romance is her favorite trope, writing books in several genres, her fabulous cover, setting a book in the world of politics, weaving pop culture and humor into this novel, rom-com character expectations, how much more latitude there is when writing thrillers versus rom-coms, and much more. Ashley's recommended reads are: A Brush with Love by Mazey Eddings A Certain Appeal by Vanessa King How to Fake It in Hollywood by Ava Wilder As Seen on TV by Meredith Schorr A Very Typical Family by Sierra Godfrey Support the podcast by becoming a Page Turner on Patreon.  Other ways to support the podcast can be found here.     If you enjoyed this episode and want to listen to more episodes, try Amy Mason Doan, Lyn Liao Butler, Saumya Dave, Kathleen West, and Steven Rowley. Fool Me Once can be purchased at my Bookshop storefront.        Connect with me on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

LOJ Book Club Home or Away, by Kathleen West! Kathleen joins the show to talk about her new book and its amazing connection to hockey moms in Minnesota. CMT Awards were last night and we have all the Red carpet fashion posted for you. Pregnant Rihanna covers Vogue displaying her baby bump in a red lace Alaïa catsuit.

Kathleen joins the show to talk about her new book and its amazing connection to hockey moms in Minnesota.

This week, Shannon, Brooke, and Natalia are discussing female authors they've recently discovered. Books mentioned include: Lora Beth Johnson, Goddess in the Machine (Godddess in the Machine #1) Carolyn Arnold, The Little Grave (Detective Amanda Steele #1) K.N. Banet, Oath Sworn (Jacky Leon #1) Jennieke Cohen, My Fine Fellow Jaymin Eve, Rejected (Shadow Beast Shifters #1) Kathleen West, Home Or Away Bethany C. Morrow, Cherish Farrah Pamela Clare, Extreme Exposure (I-Team #1) Simone St. James, The Book of Cold Cases Madi Sinha, At Least You Have Your Health Elizabeth Briggs, Moon Touched (Zodiac Wolves #1) Shari Lapena, The Couple Next Door You can always contact the Book Bistro team by searching @BookBistroPodcast on facebook, or visiting: https://www.facebook.com/BookBistroPodcast/ You can also send an email to: TheBookBistroPodcast@gmail.com For more information on the podcast and the team behind it, please visit: http://anchor.fm/book-bistro

In this interview, Bonnie and I discuss Lessons in Chemistry, the event that inspired the story, why Elizabeth Zott is resonating with everyone, how the title came about, her amazing publishing journey, having Brie Larson star in the screen adaptation, creating the Spotify playlist for the book, and much more. Bonnie's recommended reads are: On Animals by Susan Orlean The Second Sight of Zachary Cloudesly by Sean Lusk Support the podcast by becoming a Page Turner on Patreon.  Other ways to support the podcast can be found here.     If you enjoyed this episode and want to listen to more episodes, try Amy Mason Doan, Lyn Liao Butler, Saumya Dave, Kathleen West, and Steven Rowley. Lessons in Chemistry can be purchased at my Bookshop storefront.        Connect with me on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Kathleen West joins me for a fun and popular very relevant conversation about kids sports and competitive parenting as we celebrate her latest novel, Home or Away. She was such a delight and joined live from her classroom, Books are Chic first :) She is an author, mom and teacher- woman of all trades! Follow Kathleen for her latest novels and news: https://www.kathleenwestbooks.com

Have you picked up Home or Away by Kathleen West yet? If you haven't, today's episode will absolutely convince you to! I sat down with Kathleen to discuss her newest release, along with the Me Too movement, how book popularity is completely based on timing, and the pressure we put on kids and athletes! This book is a poignant look at both how far parents will go to help their kid succeed at their goals while also taking a look at less than ethical relationships and abuse of power. Order Home or Away here This episode is sponsored by Audible! Follow this link to get a free 30-day trial for Audible. Become a Patreon Member! https://www.patreon.com/abookshelfbinge Join the discord server! Shop the books mentioned on the podcast here! We have merch! Click here to shop the podcast's merch! Credits: Host: @bookshelfbinge Guest: Kathleen West (@KathleenWestWrites) Cover art: SaraSomethingCo (@sarasomething.co) --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

For this special episode, Carol Ann Tack of Top Shelf at Merrick Library and I interview Kathleen West together. We talk about her new book Home or Away, the intensity of youth sports, the book's title, writing about #metoo, and so much more. Kathleen's recommended reads: Will by Will Smith Agatha of Little Neon by Claire Luchette This Might Hurt by Stephanie Wrobel Support the podcast by becoming a Page Turner on Patreon.  Other ways to support the podcast can be found here.     Home or Away can be purchased at my Bookshop storefront.        Connect with me on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.  Connect with Carol Ann Tack on Instagram and Twitter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

JeanBookNerd's Erik chats with the author KATHLEEN WEST and her latest book, HOME OR AWAY.KATHLEEN WESTWebsite: https://www.kathleenwestbooks.comFacebook: http://www.facebook.com/kathleenwestauthorTwitter: https://twitter.com/kwestbooksInstagram: http://instagram.com/kathleenwestwritesHOME OR AWAYAmazon: https://amzn.to/3uELZMpGoodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/19341415.Kathleen_WestTo learn more about the JeanBookNerd Storytellers BOXhttp://www.jeanbooknerdstorytellersbox.comExclusive author Interviews, reviews, and contests from JeanBookNerdhttp://www.jeanbooknerd.comJeanBookNerd Host: Erik Werlin (@erikwerlin)

HOME OR AWAY is the latest from Kathleen West and for this episode we talked about ice hockey, the #metoo movement, balancing careers, motherhood and more.  HOME OR AWAY is about two friends, one Olympic dream, and the choice that stood in the way. I was so fortunate to once again join forces with Cindy … Continue reading Episode 88: Kathleen West author of Home or Away →

Today I am chatting with Commercial Fiction author Kathleen West. Kathleen's latest Home or Away is about two friends, one Olympic dream, and the choice that stood in the way. In this interview, we chat about Kathleen's journey to publication, what it is like to write under contract and Kathleen's challenge to read 52 books per year. SHOWNOTES AND BOOK LINKShttp://WhattoReadNextBlog.comMusic from Uppbeat (free for Creators!):https://uppbeat.io/t/hartzmann/sunnyLicense code: 0RDRBKGH6NGQCAXR

Rosie and I discuss The Love of My Life, having her book selected as a GMA Book Club pick, the obituary writing business, the tortuous process she went through when writing this book, how book covers are selected and the way covers vary by country, and much more. Rosie's recommended reads are: The Push by Ashley Audrain The Last Thing He Told Me by Laura Dave Support the podcast by becoming a Page Turner on Patreon.  Other ways to support the podcast can be found here.     If you enjoyed this episode and want to listen to more episodes, try Amy Mason Doan, Lyn Liao Butler, Saumya Dave, Kathleen West, and Steven Rowley. The Love of My Life can be purchased at my Bookshop storefront.        Connect with me on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Rebecca and I discuss One Italian Summer, exploring the dialogue between fate and free will, including a bit of magical realism in her stories, how the inspiration for her stories comes from what she is personally working through at the time, the hardest character for her to write in One Italian Summer, and much more. Rebecca's recommended reads are: The Unsinkable Greta James by Jennifer E. Smith Nothing to See Here by Kevin Wilson The Plot by Jean Hanff Korelitz The Love Affairs of Nathaniel P. by Adelle Waldman Support the podcast by becoming a Page Turner on Patreon.  Other ways to support the podcast can be found here.     If you enjoyed this episode and want to listen to more episodes, try Amy Mason Doan, Lyn Liao Butler, Saumya Dave, Kathleen West, and Steven Rowley. One Italian Summer can be purchased at my Bookshop storefront.        Connect with me on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jennifer and I discuss The Unsinkable Greta James, writing a love story about Greta and her music, exploring what it is like to live a creative life, the effects of living in such a connected and public world, how working in the publishing industry impacts her work, and much more. Jennifer's recommended reads are: The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead The Mutual Friend by Carter Bays Support the podcast by becoming a Page Turner on Patreon.  Other ways to support the podcast can be found here.     If you enjoyed this episode and want to listen to more episodes, try Amy Mason Doan, Lyn Liao Butler, Saumya Dave, Kathleen West, and Steven Rowley. The Unsinkable Greta James can be purchased at the Conversations from a Page Bookshop storefront.        Connect with me on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

March is just around the corner, so the women of Book Bistro are here to share some of the upcoming releases they're most excited to read. Titles mentioned include: Sabaa Tahir, All My Rage Simone St. James, The Book of Cold Cases Ilsa Madden-Mills, Beauty and the Baller Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen, The Golden Couple Jesse Q. Sutanto, Four Aunties and a Wedding (Aunties #2) Anne Bishop, Crow Bones (World of the Others #3) Lisa Scottoline, What Happened To the Bennetts Jessica Strawser, The Next Thing You Know Erin Stewart, The Words We Keep Naima Simone, With Love From Rose Bend (Rose Bend #3) Susan Mallery, The Summer Getaway Erica Spindler, The Detective's Daughter Jayne Cowie, Curfew Taj McCoy, Savvy Sheldon Feels Good as Hell Jenny Colgan, Welcome To the School by the Sea (Little School By the Sea #1) Seanan McGuire, Spelunking Through Hell (Incryptid #11) Kathleen West, Home Or Away Karen White, The Shop On Royal Street (Royal Street #1) Jennifer L. Armentrout, The War of Two Queens (Blood and Ash #4) Phillip Margolin, The Darkest Place (Robin Lockwood #5) Dhonielle Clayton and Sona Charaipotra, The Rumor Game Trish Doller, The Sweet Spot (Beck Sisters #2) Jude Deveraux, A Relative Murder (Medlar #4) Lynn Painter, Mr. Wrong Number You can always contact the Book Bistro team by searching @BookBistroPodcast on facebook, or visiting: https://www.facebook.com/BookBistroPodcast/ You can also send an email to: TheBookBistroPodcast@gmail.com For more information on the podcast and the team behind it, please visit: http://anchor.fm/book-bistro

Lyn and I discuss Red Thread of Fate, how this book is a more personal story for her, wanting to make sure she had the adoption details exactly right, the difficulty of writing a shy/reserved character, found families, and much more. Lyn's recommended reads are: The People We Keep by Allison Larkin Nanny Needed by Georgina Cross The Guncle by Steven Rowley The Jasmine Project by Meredith Ireland Support the podcast by becoming a Page Turner on Patreon.  Other ways to support the podcast can be found here.   If you enjoyed this episode and want to listen to more episodes, try Amy Mason Doan, Elena Armas, Saumya Dave, Kathleen West, and Steven Rowley. Red Thread of Fate can be purchased at my Bookshop storefront.        Connect with me on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Elena and I discuss The Spanish Love Deception, her unusual and very cool publishing journey, winning the Goodreads Choice Best Debut Novel Award and what the selection process was like, her favorite romance trope, how being a romance blogger and bookstagrammer prepared her to write rom-coms, and much more. Elena's recommended reads are: Love on the Brain by Ali Hazelwood Hook, Line & Sinker by Tessa Bailey Support the podcast by becoming a Page Turner on Patreon.  Other ways to support the podcast can be found here.   If you enjoyed this episode and want to listen to more episodes, try Amy Mason Doan, Lyn Liao Butler, Saumya Dave, Kathleen West, and Steven Rowley. The Spanish Love Deception can be purchased at the Conversations from a Page Bookshop storefront.        Connect with me on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's author interview guest is Kathleen West, author of Home or Away. “A gloriously entertaining plunge into...

Kristy and I discuss Christmas in Peachtree Bluff, writing a holiday story versus a non-holiday story, returning to Peachtree Bluff after a hiatus and whether she will write more in the series, Friends and Fiction, and much more. Kristy's recommended reads are: The Santa Suit by Mary Kay Andrews Once Upon a Wardrobe by Patti Callahan In Polite Company by Gervais Hagerty Support the podcast by becoming a Page Turner on Patreon.  Other ways to support the podcast can be found here.   Thanks to Maggie Garza of HTX Real Estate Group for sponsoring this episode. If you enjoyed this episode and want to listen to more episodes, try Amy Mason Doan, Lyn Liao Butler, Saumya Dave, Kathleen West, and Steven Rowley. Christmas in Peachtree Bluff can be purchased at the Conversations from a Page Bookshop storefront.        Connect with me on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We're back after a relaxing holiday in Brittany. We'll be going back soon!   About That Kiss, narrated by the great Abby Craden, is out in audio in most places (not Audible or Amazon.) And Harper posted her fantasy casting on her blog.   Harper's next book finally has a title and it's not Difficult Women. The editor suggested Two Lesbians Processing. It will be available for pre-order here.  However, her next next book is proving to be a bit of a struggle.   Harper doesn't like tv shows where the characters are too nice, so she loved The White Lotus.   In reading news, Harper has been devouring books by Taylor Jenkins Reid. Caroline's read of the week is Minor Dramas and Other Catastrophes by Kathleen West, which she chose because of the cover.   Tune in again next time for a new episode of Harper Bliss & Her Mrs.  Get in touch with us with your questions, comments, or suggested topics at harperblissandhermrs@gmail.com.  Get some free books by subscribing to the Harper Bliss mailing list. For more on Harper Bliss visit www.harperbliss.com

Drama of middle-schoolers and their parents.

Recorded Thursday, July 22, 2021 Book talk begins at 25:06 Our annual Mother Bear KAL is on!  Any Mother Bear that you have knit or crocheted in 2021 is eligible to post in our FO Thread.  One post per bear please.  Please see all the rules and participate in the Chatter Thread. #2021MBKAL2KL Virtual get-together via Zoom on Saturdays, 12 noon  PST - Details here We are giving away 3 copies of Fredi Baker's Let's Shawl-a-Brate! pattern.  Leave a comment on the prize thread telling us how you feel about putting colors together - love it, get intimidated, or always buy the kit?  Thread will close August 15.   KNITTING Tracie finished: Cowl Shell by Myrna Batten in Araucania Caña Ruca, color #213 3 Mother Bears - 256-258 Snake River Poncho by Katy H. Carroll in Aspen Silk 600 in the Downtown Colorway   Barb finished: Mother Bear #243 Koko Bean Hat #2 by JudithMarieKnits The Capitol hat by Hinterm Stein, using Baah Yarn Platinum in the Misty colorway Tracie cast on: Fiddly Bits Cowl by Jana Pihota, using Tracie's handspun from fiber by Woolgatherings Polwarth/silk   And continues working on: Vanilla Socks in Lollipop Quintessential Gripes Still Crazy Calyx pullover by Elizabeth Doherty, using Cloudborn Fibers Pima Cotton DK in the Spring Green colorway   Barb continues to work on Vanilla socks using Western Sky Knits Aspen Sock in the Concrete Sunset colorway That's My Jam by Steven Fegert, using a kit bought from Learning Men Fiber Arts   She has cast on: Another Bankhead Hat by Susie Gourlay, using leftover worsted weight yarn. My Oasis pullover by Ririko, using Neighborhood Fiber Co. Rustic Fingering in the Conton colorway and Neighborhood Fiber Co. Rustic Fingering Gradients in Shades of Emerald   BOOKS  Tracie read: First Degree Rage: The True Story of "The Assassin", an Obsession, and Murder  by Paula May - 3 stars Minor Dramas and Other Catastrophes by Kathleen West - 4 stars The Fourth Child by Jessica Winter - 4 stars Barb read: Leave the World Behind - 4 stars

Jamie and I discuss Blush, paying homage to the books that have stayed with her for decades, what Jackie Collins' daughter thought about Blush, the unfortunate push to categorize books by women and how men's books are not treated the same way, how art cannot be judged in the moment, and much more. Jamie's recommended reads are: The Plot by Jean Hanff Korelitz Hungry Heart: Adventures in Life, Love, and Writing by Jennifer Weiner Support the podcast by becoming a Page Turner on Patreon here.  Other ways to support the podcast can be found here.     If you enjoyed this episode and want to listen to more episodes, try Amy Mason Doan, Lyn Liao Butler, Saumya Dave, Kathleen West, and Steven Rowley. Blush is a July Buzz Reads pick and can be purchased at the Conversations from a Page Bookshop storefront.        Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Lyn and I discuss The Tiger Mom's Tale, what she wants readers to take away from her book, bringing Taiwanese culture and food to life, how her Instagram blooper Reels came about, her unusual publishing journey, and much more. Lyn's recommended reads are: Little Secrets by Jennifer Hillier Accidentally Engaged by Farah Heron Simmer Down by Sarah Smith Support the podcast by becoming a Page Turner on Patreon here.  Other ways to support the podcast can be found here.     If you enjoyed this episode and want to listen to more episodes, try Lauren Ho, Kathleen West, Saumya Dave, Kristan Higgins, and Steven Rowley. The Tiger Mom's Tale can be purchased at the Conversations from a Page Bookshop storefront.        Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Emma and I discuss Songs in Ursa Major, how the relationship between James Taylor and Joni Mitchell inspired her story, crafting the lyrics for the songs in the book, growing up with music as a language in her house, what she learned from writing the screenplay for Songs in Ursa Major, and much more. Emma's recommended reads are: Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia A Touch of Jen by Beth Morgan Support the podcast by becoming a Page Turner on Patreon here.   If you enjoyed this episode and want to listen to more episodes, try Kathleen West, Steven Rowley, Jeff Arch, and Hala Alyan. Songs in Ursa Major can be purchased at the Conversations from a Page Bookshop storefront.      Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This episode was originally recorded as a DEI Community Call, and features a conversation with Kathleen West-Evans, Director of Business Relations, The National Employment Team (NET), Council of State Administrators of VR. Learn more about this diverse talent pool, and the intersections of race, culture and disabilities and what the impact will be post-COVID on retaining and returning the "long haulers" to the workplace.   

Jeff and I discuss Attachments, crafting a story about relationships, his personal connection to the novel, how watching soap operas helped him write this novel, creating Sleepless in Seattle and behind-the-scenes details about its development, and much more. Jeff’s recommended reads are: Anxious People by Fredrik Backman The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce The Exiles by Christina Baker Kline Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine  by Gail Honeyman Support or sponsor an episode of the podcast here.   If you enjoyed this episode and want to listen to more episodes, try Sanjena Sathian, Kathleen West, Bianca Marais, Kim Neville, and Hala Alyan. Read the June Buzz Reads article here. Attachments can be purchased at the Conversations from a Page Bookshop storefront.      Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Steven and I discuss his new book The Guncle, including humor in his stories, how Auntie Mame and other magical caregivers inspired this story, the special message in his Acknowledgments, how The Editor came about, and much more. Steven’s recommended reads are: The Good Sister by Sally Hepworth Less by Andrew Sean Greer Better Luck Next Time by Julia Claiborne Johnson A Star is Bored by Byron Lane Support or sponsor an episode of the podcast here.    If you enjoyed this episode and want to listen to more episodes, try Katherine St. John, Georgia Clark, Lauren Ho, Madeleine Henry, and Kathleen West. The Guncle can be purchased at the Conversations from a Page Bookshop storefront.        Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's guest is Kathleen West, author of Are We There Yet? We talk teachers who are writers, writers who are teachers, and the effect of social media on all of us - youth and adults. Read the Transcript Support the Podcast Follow on Facebook   Links for Kathleen: Site Twitter Facebook Instagram   Ad Links: PubSite Formulate

Kathleen West's novels, Minor Dramas & Other Catastrophes and Are We There Yet?, have been best books picks by Real Simple, Newsweek, People Magazine, Entertainment Weekly, Good Morning America, Pop Sugar, and the New York Post. A teacher for 20 years before she published her first novel, Kathleen is particularly interested in the topics of motherhood, ambition, competitive parenting, and the elusiveness of work-life balance. She is a life-long Minnesotan and lives in Minneapolis with her family.How Do You Write Podcast: Explore the processes of working writers with bestselling author Rachael Herron. Want tips on how to write the book you long to finish? Here you'll gain insight from other writers on how to get in the chair, tricks to stay in it, and inspiration to get your own words flowing. Join Rachael's Slack channel, Onward Writers! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This episode begins with an author interview, Kathleen West, is today's guest. Immediately following is your guide to new book releases coming out the week of April 27, 2021 For more information on the titles mentioned in this podcast, pleas visit: https://www.facebook.com/BookBistroPodcast/ You can always contact the Book Bistro team by searching @BookBistroPodcast on facebook, or visiting: https://www.facebook.com/BookBistroPodcast/ You can also send an email to: TheBookBistroPodcast@gmail.com For more information on the podcast and the team behind it, please visit: http://anchor.fm/book-bistro

Alison Hammer has been called "a great new voice in women's fiction" by the esteemed Kristin Harmel. This interview celebrates the release of Alison's sophomore novel, Little Pieces of Me, which was named one of the top April books by E! News, and received a Library Journal starred review. We chat about Alison's unique writing process, her craft advice, and she has three recommended reads. Find Little Pieces of Me and You and Me and Us on bookshop.org, along with the three novels Alison recommends; A Million Reasons Why by Jessica Strawser, Are We There Yet? by Kathleen West, and The Exit Strategy by Lainey Cameron. Connect with Alison and learn more about her books at www.alisonhammer.com or on Instagram @thishammer. Find all episodes at www.bestofwomensfiction.com

My Three Things with @WillByington - Episode 8 - Featuring Author of You And Me And Us and Little Pieces Of Me - Alison Hammer. #MyThreeThingsPodcast www.AlisonHammer.com Twitter/Instagram: @ThisHammer Buy a copy of Little Pieces Of Me now at https://www.alisonhammer.com/launchparty to join the Official Book Launch PARTY for Tuesday, April 13, 2021 . . . . . . . . Alison's #MyThreeThingsPodcast Suggestions: 1) Life In Pieces TV Show - https://www.amazon.com/Life-in-Pieces-Season-1/dp/B014P64DG6/ref=nodl_ 2) Family Secrets by Dani Shapiro podcast - https://danishapiro.com/family-secrets/ 3) BOOKS - P Is for Pterodactyl: The Worst Alphabet Book Ever by Raj Haldar - https://amzn.to/3t3NT7i - The Kindest Lie by Nancy Johnson - https://amzn.to/3dIzI1h - Are We There Yet by Kathleen West - https://amzn.to/3mxIgfd --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

A not so “double life,” a bottle of Absinthe, and theory after theory, after theory.For photos and maps pertaining to this case, check out Kathleen's highlights at the top of my Instagram profile at http://www.instagram.com/TheHeatherAshleyIf you need more BMTC episodes in your life, check out our Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/join/BigMadTrueCrime

Kathleen and I discuss Are We There Yet?, how social media and cell phones play such major roles in teens’ lives today, parents who believe their self-worth and social standing are tied to their children’s, parenting in 2021, balancing oversight and privacy as a parent, and more. Kathleen’s 5 recommended reads are: The Second Home by Christina Clancy The Chicken Sisters by KJ Dell’Antonia Death in the Family by Tessa Wegert Behind the Red Door by Megan Collins How to Fail at Flirting by Denise Williams  Support the podcast here. For more information about sponsoring an episode, click here. If you enjoy reading contemporary fiction and want to listen to more podcast episodes like this one, try Amy Poeppel, Julie Carrick Dalton, Liese O’Halloran Schwarz, A. H. Kim, and Te-Ping Chen. Are We There Yet? can be purchased at the CFAP Bookshop storefront or Murder by the Book.

Kathleen's debut, Minor Dramas and Other Catastrophes, was received with great acclaim in 2020 and was chosen as a best books pick by Real Simple, Newsweek, People Magazine, Entertainment Weekly, and the New York Post. This week her second novel Are We There Yet? hits the stores, and Kathleen shares her inspiration, book recommendations and has some great writing advice! Find Kathleen's novels, Are We There Yet and Minor Dramas and Other Catastrophes on bookshop.org as well as her recommended reads The Chicken Sisters by KJ Dell'Antonia and Ahmed Aziz's Epic Year by Nina Hamza. Connect with Kathleen and learn more about her books at www.kathleenwestbooks.com or on Instagram @kathleenwestwrites Find all episodes at www.bestofwomensfiction.com

PLUS: We give a post-St. Patrick's Day report, IT'S MATT BELANGER: A COVID vaccine update AND LORI AND JULIA'S BOOK CLUB: "Are We There Yet" by Kathleen West

info@podcastone.comcea246f5-e6e9-4a60-9e6e-013439cf35b0Thu, 18 Mar 2021 13:57:12 PDTLori & Julia00:15:41

This week, Stacy, Brooke, Sara, Shannon, and Natalia discuss their most anticipated March releases. Titles mentioned include: Juliet Blackwell, Off the Wild Coast of Brittany Sarah Penner, The Lost Apothecary Patricia Briggs, Wild Sign (Alpha and Omega #6) Farah Heron, Accidentally Engaged Cynthia Hand, With You All the Way Joanna Shupe, The Heiress Hunt (Fifth Avenue Rebels #1) J.T. Ellison, Her Dark Lies Talia Hibbert, Act Your Age, Eve Brown (Brown Sisters #3) Kathleen West, Are We There Yet Wendy Heard, She's Too Pretty To Burn Stephen King, Later Aiden Thomas, Lost In the Never Woods L.J. Shen, The Devil Wears Black Sara Desai, The Dating Plan Amy Harmon, The Songbook of Benny Lament You can always contact the Book Bistro team by searching @BookBistroPodcast on facebook, or visiting: https://www.facebook.com/BookBistroPodcast/ You can also send an email to: TheBookBistroPodcast@gmail.com For more information on the podcast and the team behind it, please visit: http://anchor.fm/book-bistro.

Episode #28  This is the story of Jeff West and Kathleen West.    Disclaimer: All information about this episode was obtained from online public sources. This is a show loosely based on a water cooler approach to delivering a true crime story.  We feel empathy for every victim but choose to focus on the crazy details of these crimes while trying to be respectful to those who lost a loved one.  If you are easily offended or prone to "speak to your manager" behavior, you may want to rethink pushing play. If you're awesome like us, subscribe and we will do our best to keep you saying WTF with every show! Adult language.  

This week we get to talk with Kathleen West, author of MINOR DRAMAS AND OTHER CATASTROPHES and the upcoming novel, ARE WE THERE YET? Find out more at https://www.kathleenwestbooks.com and follow her on Twitter at https://twitter.com/kwestbooks, on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/kathleenwestauthor, and on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/kathleenwestwrites/. Thank you to all of our amazing listeners, including our Patrons at https://Patreon.com/BeyondTheTrope. Don't forget you can snag exclusive Beyond The Trope gear at https://BeyondTheTrope.Redbubble.com. Mentioned in this episode: EVERYTHING I NEVER TOLD YOU by Celeste Ng Ellis Island: The Dream of America (Play) by Peter Boyer The Loft Literary Center YOUR BOOK STARTS HERE by Mary Carroll Moore WHERE'S WALLY by Martin Handford People Magazine Real Simple Newsweek THE ONES WHO WALK AWAY FROM OMELAS by Ursula K. Le Guin  

Kathleen West, known as "Kitty Kat" by men who subscribed to her sex website, was killed when her husband busted her skull with a liquor bottle, according to court documents. Jeff West's trial is underway. Joining Nancy Grace Today:James Shelnutt - 27 years Atlanta Metro Major Case detective, SWAT Officer (RET) Attorney www.shelnuttlawfirm.com Dr. Daniel Bober - Forensic Psychiatrist, Chief of Psychiatry Memorial Regional Healthcare Systems, Assistant Clinical Professor at Yale University School of Medicine, follow on Instagram at drdanielbober Bobby Chacon - Former Special Agent FBI, screenwriter on "Criminal Minds" Dr. Katherine Maloney, Deputy Chief Medical Examiner, Erie County Medical Examiners office, Buffalo, New York Dave Mack Crime Online Investigative Reporter

Today, Kaytee and Meredith are here with a special episode for you! We are reflecting back on our second year of podcasting and our biggest wins and our biggest regrets. We get a bit vulnerable, a bit silly, and a bit reflective. You’ll get some behind-the-scenes glimpses as well as some “looking to the future” previews. We are so grateful for the cadre of listeners that we have connected with over these two years, and we could never have imagined how much this podcast could have brought to our lives. As per usual, time-stamped show notes are below with references to every book and resource we mentioned in this episode. If you’d like to listen first and not spoil the surprise, don’t scroll down!  *Please note that all book titles linked above are Amazon affiliate links. Your cost is the same, but a small portion of your purchase will come back to us to help offset the costs of the show. Thanks for your support!*   . . . . . Best of Season 2: 4:10 - Season 2, Episode 31: Spicy Takes: Books We Wanted to Throw Against the Wall 6:04 - Episode 27 of Season 1: Bookish Pet Peeves 6:57 - Season 2, Episode 22: Goodreads Choice Award Side-Eye 7:11 - Season 2, Episode 23: Our Best Books of 2019 8:23 - Golden Earbud Awards EPISODE and Instagram post 8:43 - Meredith visits Kaytee Instagram Post 9:48 - The Dream Daughter by Diane Chamberlain 10:04 - Ideal Bookshelf Puzzle 10:15 - A Good Time for the Truth: Race in Minnesota by Sun Yung Shin 10:40 - Apple Watch 10:55 - Bookshop.org 12:28 - Episode 36 of Season 2 12:33 - Minor Dramas and Other Catastrophes by Kathleen West 13:42 - The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins 13:32 - The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix 16:49 - The Only Plane in the Sky by Garrett M. Graff 18:29 - Season 2, Episode 36 conversation about wild animal pets 20:29 - COVID(eo)s on Patreon - free for all! 22:02 - COVID(eo) with 5 of our kiddos! 28:29 - Patreon - the beginning of Bookish Friend(ship)s 39:31 - Untamed by Glennon Doyle 40:52 - Slay by Brittney Morris 40:54 - Pride by Ibi Zoboi 42:22 - Season 2, Episode 29 - Golden Earbud Awards 42:55 - Season 2, Episode 35 - Girl, Get You A Bookstagram 44:16 - Season 2, Episode 25 - Cozy Mystery Deep Dive 45:31 - Minisode with January LaVoy 45:53 - Minisode with Anna Hithersay 47:41 - Patreon 49:14 - REMINDER: Last episode of Season 2, but be sure to join us on Instagram next week for a giveaway! Connect With Us: Meredith is @meredith.reads on Instagram Kaytee is @notesonbookmarks on Instagram Mindy is @gratefulforgrace on Instagram Mary is @maryreadsandsips on Instagram currentlyreadingpodcast.com @currentlyreadingpodcast on Instagram currentlyreadingpodcast@gmail.com

Kathleen debut earned a starred Kirkus review and a comparison to Liane Moriarty’s Big Little Lies. Listen as Kathleen describes how she used her experiences as a high-school English teacher to explore the world of helicoptering parenting and viral rumors, and how she worked together with her agent for a solid four months to revise her book for submission (which paid off when it sold after a mere three weeks). it was was a best books pick by Real Simple, Newsweek, People Magazine, Entertainment Weekly, and the New York Post.  A teacher for 20 years before she published her first novel, Kathleen is particularly interested in the topics of motherhood, ambition, competitive parenting, and the elusiveness of work-life balance. Her sophomore effort, Are We There Yet?, publishes in March 2021. She is a life-long Minnesotan and lives in Minneapolis with her family. To learn more about Kathleen, click here.    

Today, Meredith and Kaytee are discussing: Bookish Moments: a COVID(eo) recording with our kids and a Bookish Scavenger Hunt Current Reads: each of us shares three books we’ve been reading lately including two strong opinions about galleys we received. Deep Dive: Why would an adult read a YA or Middle Grade book? Book Presses: we’re adding more “middle grade reads that adults will love” to your TBR stacks! Bonus: we go on a ridiculous tangent about the wild animals we would like to own as pets and a certain literary villain that Meredith has identified with since she was a child. It’s after the presses, so you’re welcome to tune out of the “chit chat” that we always promise to avoid, but we think it’ll make you laugh! As per usual, time-stamped show notes are below with references to every book and resource we mentioned in this episode. If you’d like to listen first and not spoil the surprise, don’t scroll down!  *Please note that all book titles linked above are Amazon affiliate links. Your cost is the same, but a small portion of your purchase will come back to us to help offset the costs of the show. Thanks for your support!*   . . . . . Bookish Moments: 3:09 - Our third COVID(eo) with our kids! 4:16 - Bookish Scavenger hunt on ActionBound - download the iOS or Android app to play! Current Reads: 6:09 - The Holdout by Graham Moore 6:45 - The Firm by John Grisham 10:00 - Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi 10:18 - Stamped from the Beginning by Ibram X. Kendi 13:04 - Minor Dramas & Other Catastrophes by Kathleen West 13:14 - Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty 18:34 - Darling Rose Gold by Stephanie Wrobel 22:55 - Episode 25 of Season 2 about Cozy Mysteries 23:18 - Crime and Poetry by Amanda Flower 27:12 - Episode 16 of Season 2 with Sarah Dickinson 27:16 - The Other Wes Moore by Wes Moore Deep Dive - Why Adults Would Read YA and MG: 32:04 - Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis 35:05 - The Family Under the Bridge by Natalie Carlson 35:17 - The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas 36:42 - Our Books We Press List Books We Want to Press Into Your Hands: 37:35 - Furthermore by Taherah Mafi 40:08 - Nevermoor by Jessica Townsend 41:04 - The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate 43:35 - (stick around for the most ridiculous tangent into wild animals that we wish we could own as pets and find out which literary villain Meredith identifies with!)

Kathleen West is the debut author of Minor Dramas & Other Catastrophes. Kathleen uses her experience as both a parent and school teacher to write a pretty perfect novel for today's moms and dads! Kathleen’s story involves a helicopter theater mom who has lost her sense of boundaries, a progressive English teacher who comes under fire for her curriculum, and a social media scandal that ensnares them both. This conversation was the perfect mix of parenting wisdom, writing advice and encouragement! Kathleen and I chatted about the lessons she’s learned by walking the line between parent and teacher and the writing workshops she held with her students while editing the novel. Kathleen started writing this book as a new year's resolution and as a way to reclaim her writing identity. I really appreciated her advice to let yourself to write something terrible! (I’ve definitely taken it - ha!)

Hey listeners! It’s been a mad mad mad week here (all of you in the future, check the date), and I bet there too. Result: there are no shownotes for this episode. We’re talking about revamping my website to get it in gear for my forthcoming second book. Here’s the image we mention—the before—and for the after (which is still in progress), head over to my site and see what you think. Any questions, shoot me an email (kjdellantonia@gmail.com or reply to this.Transcript (We use an AI service for transcription, and while we do clean it up a bit, some errors are the price of admission here. We hope it’s still helpful.)KJ (00:00):Hey #AmWriting listeners, this is KJ and this is my seventh time attempting to record this pre-episode discussion of something really cool that's being authored by Author Accelerator, our sponsor. I think you all know that I loved working with Jennie Nash on revising my manuscript for The Chicken Sisters. Well, if you'd be interested in working in a small group with Jennie, she is offering a Rock Your Revision small intensive workshop for fiction writers ready to revise manuscripts this summer, July 16th - 19th of 2020 in Santa Barbara, California. If that interests you, if it sounds like something you'll be ready for, if it sounds like something that having it scheduled might make you get ready for (and I think that will work) head on over to author accelerator.com click on the retreats and summits link, and then scroll on down to Rock Your Revision to learn more. Is it recording now?Jess (01:05):Now it's recording.KJ (01:06):Yay.Jess (01:06):Go ahead.KJ (01:08):This is the part where I stare blankly at the microphone like I don't remember what I'm supposed to be doing.Jess (01:12):Alright, let's start over.KJ (01:13):Awkward pause. I'm going to rustle some papers. Okay. Now one, two, three. Hi, I'm KJ Dell'Antonia and this is #Am writing the podcast about writing all the things and getting them out into the world. And that's all I'm going to say about that this week.Sarina (01:37):Really? Well, I'm Sarina Bowen and I write long things, primarily genre fiction and I've written 30-odd romances and my newest one is called Sure Shot. If I ever finish it.KJ (01:50):I can't wait for it. Okay. I am KJ Dell'Antonia, the dithering other voice on the other end of the microphone. I am the author of the novel, The Chicken Sisters coming out this summer and the book How To Be a Happier Parent as well as the former editor of the New York Times' Motherlode blog. And those are the things that I do and it's just me and Sarina today.Sarina (02:23):It is. We're here to work on KJ's launch sequence.KJ (02:26):Yes. And if we sound a little odd, we are (as we often are) working in our local libraries. So, yes. Sarina, as we all know, has many, many, many past identities and for all I know is also cat woman when we're not together. But one of those past identities is helping people, specifically authors, with their websites. So that's our plan today. We're going to go over my website and talk about how I can shift it from being a website, primarily designed for a parenting author to a website designed for an author in general. And the way we're going to do this (if you want to take a look) by the time you hear this, I will have changed it. So we're going to take a lot of screenshots. So if you'd like to see what we're talking about and we will describe it cause you're probably in your car. But if you do want to just head over to the show notes at amwritingpodcast.com and there will be pictures, screenshots of this website as it is today before the dramatic changes that I'm going to make to it. I mean, it's a good website somebody made it for me and I can change it and you know, there's nothing wrong with it other than that there is absolutely no mention of my nove,l at all whatsoever.Sarina (03:55):Right.KJ (03:56):Because that's the first thing that's wrong with it. Check.Sarina (03:59):So I usually get involved with an author's website at about this same point. Sometimes I'll get calls earlier before people have cover art for their book and those people have been told that they must have an author website and start building their platform and blah, blah blah, but they don't have a book cover. And that is fine. Like, it's great to be invested in handling your book launch, but if you really do your website before you have cover art, you're wasting your money because it, you know, it would be disappointing to do a website all in purple and to find that your book cover is bright yellow. So, you know, I gently dissuade people from spending their hard earned cash early on, but you're ready to go because you have your cover art.KJ (04:50):I do.Sarina (04:51):And I have to say that I have seen some smashingly beautiful author websites over time, just so original and stunning that angels weep.KJ (05:03):That's not really what I'm going for.Sarina (05:04):Well, that's not really what I go for either. I mean, I think that the most important, pretty much the only important thing is that your website do two things. One is that it helps readers bond with your book before they're ready to click that one-click button. So that means that they're familiar with the cover art. So when your page loads at kjdellantonia.com we should see the new cover art immediately. That's pretty much step one. And the second thing is that most readers, I mean they can learn about us anywhere, right? Like social media, Amazon, Barnesandnoble.com, there's so many places. But if they actually take the trouble to find their way all the way to your website, it's probably because they have a question. So we're going to anticipate that question and try to answer it within one to two clicks, two being the absolute maximum. So if you can do those two things, you're doing so, so well.KJ (06:10):Excellent. And one of the reasons I'm leaping on this is that I searched another author somebody that I know because I knew that they had a new book coming out, and I couldn't remember the name, and I needed to know for various reasons. And I went to their website and it wasn't there. And that's exactly what someone could do for me. Although let me just say that author's book is coming out before me. Okay. So that person had better just get on it.Sarina (06:40):And this is sometimes difficult, like not everybody likes noodling with websites. Like I love it, honestly.KJ (06:46):I'm happy to crawl around in there, too. I just want to have a mission.Sarina (06:51):Right. And for some people this is like the hardest partKJ (06:55):And if it is the hardest part, hire someone. You don't have to do this yourself.Sarina (07:01):It doesn't have to be fancy.KJ (07:02):It doesn't. Or you like Squarespace, right?Sarina (07:06):I love Squarespace. But there are even easier things to do. Like did you know that if you join the Author's Guild for approximately $200 a year, you get a free website from them and they will help you set it up?KJ (07:18):I did not.Sarina (07:19):Yeah. And you won't have as much control over it as I like to have over mine. But if you just hate websites, that is not a bad option.KJ (07:27):You know, we don't need blogs anymore. You know, your website is probably (correct me if I'm wrong) a largely static entity.Sarina (07:38):Well, mine is not actually.KJ (07:40):No, I know yours isn't. Because you are a person who puts out many, many books a year. So if you're that, then you're working with a website with probably shopping, and possibly merch, and some other things. I, on the other hand, am a one book every couple of years author at the moment, although I'd like to speed that up. And so I am not really needing to use my website to inform you of immediate developments.Sarina (08:10):Right. So I would like to add a third thing to our little to do list, though. Because I don't want to burden everyone and say that you have to do a million things on your author website. But honestly, this third thing could save your career, which is that you must have a way for people to sign up for your newsletter that is both easy without being irritating.KJ (08:29):That's a challenge.Sarina (08:31):Yeah. Well, I mean, we're all quite used to popups now. There are obnoxious ones and less obnoxious ones. And anyway, I'll leave that to our readers to decide.KJ (08:41):I turned my pop-up off because it was outdated and I could not figure it out. So normally I have a pop-up.Sarina (08:49):I turned my off as well because I didn't like the conversion rate of it. Like I thought, wow, I'm irritating 97 people for every three that type their email address in. But, instead I have many other very useful solicitations for email addresses.KJ (09:10):If you want to sign up for my email, you can go to followkj.com and there you will find my website sign up.Sarina (09:16):That's great.KJ (09:17):I think so, I'm pretty pleased with it. Wait, you'll laugh, I have to show it to Sarina. Because I changed it very on the fly recently I had to come up with an image very quickly and...Sarina (09:34):Oh, you know, that is funny. And I saw this the other day. I don't remember why, but I looked at it.KJ (09:39):It's a Playmobile character barfing into a tiny little Playmobile toliet.Sarina (09:42):Yes, we're going to have to work on this, KJ.KJ (09:44):I know, but I figured it would get attention.Sarina (09:48):It does, but your book cover needs to be right there.KJ (09:49):Let's start with the website and then we'll do the signup in a minute.Sarina (10:00):So right now, KJ's website has a bunch of wonderful parenting pictures on it, which suited her last book perfectly.KJ (10:07):And they're all in a sort of a red - pink theme.Sarina (10:10):Yes. I would quibble with the way that your cover art is not above the fold here. I will just tell you a couple of things about this challenge. So, websites as we design them on a screen are usually horizontal. Books are vertical. This is the main challenge of my life, aside from plotting novels. So KJ also just opened the website on her phone because this is something that I beg people to do and they don't usually listen. But more than half of your website visitors will be on their phones. And that is really hard for authors to figure out when they're struggling to get their hands around their website in the first place, that the phone part is almost more important. You know, people will come and say, 'Could you move my name a half an inch to the right?' And I usually let fly that line from The Matrix. Because most modern web building tools, i(ncluding Squarespace and the better templates at WordPress) now build a website on the fly for every single visitor based on the dimensions of their screen. So there is no one website, you can't design it like a movie poster anymore, you have to make something responsive. And that's why I use Squarespace because they're very good at that. And obviously lots of WordPress themes are too, I just am not as familiar.KJ (11:37):Mine is a WordPress theme, so we're not going to mess with the backend. I'm going to go and do that on my own. We're just going to talk about what it looks like and what it ought to look like. So step one...Sarina (11:48):You have a banner on yours with your name kind of in the middle instead of here above the main navigation. For displaying cover art I actually think that's a little trickier, but you can probably find a way around it or you can just move your name to the top. I know it's boring but it works. Okay? And then your main navigation is terrific. You have a home, you have the book which is going to have to change to books at the top and one of those books will be your new one. You have share the book, which is a great idea, you have blog, the podcast, resources, about KJ Dell'Antonia, and media, which are all great. So I actually wonder if about KJ Dell'Antonia and media couldn't become one thing if you wanted them to be. There's nothing wrong with there being two. So people get tunnel vision and let's say somebody wants to book you on The Today Show for your new book. So one of these things should say contact, because people get tunnel vision and I'm sure your contact information is here. But I've been like half asleep, needing coffee, and not spotting it on a website, and you really don't want that to happen to you. So, contact should always be one of those things. And also, if you did dispense with your pop-up and you're leaving that that way, then the thing on the far right should be subscribe. And that can hop right to that page you showed me a second ago, the follow KJ page, but it should be there. Yeah, so we're doing great. Now, if you scroll down on KJ's front page you do get her most recent book before this new one. Oh, okay, I would've put the bio links right here, but you have them fairly close. So that's all good. And then you could also have, instead of this got a book club thing (not that there's anything wrong with it) an email signup here, as well. So I would like to have one up in the main nav and then here on the scrolly scrolly front page. So the reason that websites got scrolly scrolly is because of phones.KJ (14:01):Let's have a look at it scrolling on my phone. So on the website you see things laid out, like you see the book cover and then to the right you see the text about the book. On the mobile, you see the book cover and then you scroll down and you see the text about the book, and then you scroll down and you'll see the by the book in a vertical list.Sarina (14:25):So the buttons are horizontal on the laptop and they're vertical on the phone. And that's because you have a properly responsive website. Now, there are some authors who had their websites built more than 10 years ago, and the site still looks good when you pull it up on the computer. But if you pull it up on the phone, it's quite broken. And here's the reason that's not good. Google will punish you. They promote (in their search rankings) sites that perform on a mobile device and they sort of demote sites that don't. And you don't want to be demoted by Google. You know that old joke like, where's the best place to hide a dead body? On the seventh page of the Google search result. Okay, so don't be that dead body.KJ (15:21):So, but it's okay to have the scrolly scrolly first page is what I'm hearing. So the fact that if you just keep scrolling, you just get stuff, after stuff, after stuff is fine. It's just that maybe the stuff is not in the right order.Sarina (15:38):Well, your stuff was in a decent order. It's like the New York Times - you know, above the fold, below the fold. So here's the thing, when I'm helping an author with a website, I send a questionnaire. And these are the questions on the questionnaire. Which author websites in your own genre do you like best? Cause that's not a bad place to get inspiration; to take a shortcut to figure out what other people are doing. Right?KJ (16:06):That's how we made our podcast. There's a podcast, it's called Hurry Slowly. I love her and I love the design of her website. And I basically was just like, this really looks great. I'm going to make ours look pretty much just like this and it is. Thank you very much, Jocelyn Keighley.Sarina (16:26):Then the second question, the colors on your site will be chosen to compliment your cover art, but please tell me what colors do you not like and what are you hoping to see? And so with you, you have a lot of colors between your two books, but they compliment each other and that's just where you know we would go.KJ (16:41):Yeah, we're going to lose the pink-iness of this theme and shift it.Sarina (16:47):And shift it to highlight the yellow. And then it will look right. So then, one of the hardest decisions is what do you want your visitors to see first when they arrive on your site. In other words, the most valuable real estate should be allocated to which of the following? And these four choices cover almost everybody. So choice one - your newest cover art and a blurb quote, which is never a bad choice. So maybe you have that cover because you want readers to bond with it immediately. And you have a very short blurb quote, like the best little bit of something that somebody said. And then a button that says 'Read more' so you can put that person right onto that book's page. So that's always a good decision if you have a book coming out. Then choice two - a view of all of your covers, like an art gallery. Like if you have an extensive backlist and you want readers of your most recent book. Cause what if someone arrives on your site with a question, what else did she write? So that's the one click thing. And in your case we would have it in a dropdown menu probably cause the art gallery doesn't really work for you. So choice three - your newest blog post. So this is usually not the right choice for my clients, but it could be if you are a very active blogger and your blogging was related to the book you were trying to sell. Then that might work. And the last choice I have here - is a book representing each of your various series.KJ (18:18):And that's what yours looks like.Sarina (18:20):Yes. And the websites that have the most content on them are the biggest challenge. Because when we have that question - what question did the person arrive with? The more books you have, the more varied that question could be. Like what's next and this or that series, which audio book did I not listen to? You know, the questions get more complicated with the more books someone has in their catalog.KJ (18:44):Yeah. I don't think that there are that many questions you're going to come to my website looking for an answer to. I guess a peculiarity of my website is that I have these resources. And they are parenting resources. You can get holiday survival guides, you can get an ebook about homework, you can get the 10 mantras for happier parents. I mean, I have quite a few of them. Most fiction readers aren't going to be here coming after these things. But my parenting book is also coming out in paperback. So some people will be coming out for them and sometimes I will be talking about them, so it's a little more complicated.Sarina (19:28):I wonder if your website shouldn't have two book covers sort of facing each other on the front of it. With The Chicken Sisters on the left and The Happier Parent on the right. And it's basically like, people make a grand choice the minute they arrive at your website because they're probably there for what topic. And then you would sort of move the person on to the page that deals with that and your resources might be down at the scrolly scrolly bottom of the parenting book.KJ (19:56):And right now the resources require you to add your email and they might as well continue to require you give your email. That seems like a good idea although in terms of my personal ability to adjust this website, hopefully I can pull it off. I've done them. Somebody else did this one. I don't have the money to have them go back in and fix it. I might get somebody else. But see on this page your name is at the top, not in the middle. So you just need to duplicate a page like this. You're right. So what I can do is abandon the current - just to get a little bit into the weeds, but you might be in my position too - is abandon the current. So right now, when you go to kjdellantonia.com it's actually not pointing to what's called home here. It's pointing to the book. So I can pick anywhere. So you can pick anywhere for you know, u.com to point to. I mean home is probably not a necessary piece of it. Okay. Like you said, I can do some redesigning here.Sarina (21:14):And you know, as you move through the process of pre-launch, to the book launch, to after the launch, your needs change a little bit. I am accustomed to people who come back once a year to have their website gussied up for their new book. One thing I would like to mention for any listeners who are considering paying to have a website done is please don't hire someone who wants you to pay them on a monthly basis forever. This used to be the way it was done. And there are still some people out there who are paying for a website which is static and they're just paying to have it hosted cause they're stuck. And you don't have to do that. You can pay someone to design a thing and to set up the hosting for you, but then you have to have the keys, you know?KJ (22:10):So part of your design process, and it was part of mine, should be the person walking you through the most basic changes that you might want to make on your website. So, to change the pictures, to change the pop-up, to change where the homepage points, you should know how to do those small things. And I do, it's more that I think they used something called Bakery Builder to build this. And it's not my more familiar thing. I can do it. And I will say, you can find that, just ask around. Ask your author friends for who has designed their website but do ask around, because I also have a friend who's been working on designing her website with her web designer for let's see, since August. Yeah. The person is really slow and she called me fairly recently and was like, 'Is this normal?' And I was like, 'No, absolutely not.' Of course, this friend also draws a picture of what she wants it to look like and then sends that to the web designer. So the web designer may also be a little frustrated. There may be fault on both sides, but I don't think so. I think it just should not be taking anywhere near this long. It's crazy. Somebody should be able to get you rolling fairly quickly.Sarina (23:39):And also just to have the ability to say when it will be done.KJ (23:45):Alright. What's next?Sarina (23:47):Well, if you really like working with your website, there are so many things you can do to help guide your author destiny using your own website. For example, you can give away a free book in exchange for an email signup. So the parts of my website that you can see when you just navigate to Sarinabowen.com is like just the tip of that iceberg because I have lots of other hidden content there that is serving special purposes for me. And the more comfortable you are touching your own website and making pages, the more fun you can have with that. So during launch week, I usually have a contest where people enter it by sharing the book. Now, not every reader of my books is interested in entering the giveaway and sharing the cover, and that's fine. But for that core of people who is really interested in helping me promote it (for whatever reason) I have a contest on a hidden page in my website where you enter the link of where you shared it, and you put in your name, and the winner gets a $25 gift card or something. So there's all kinds of things you can run off of your own website that are more controllable than social media. And if you think about Facebook, which we all basically have to use when we promote a book, it's ugly and you can't make a post do what you want. You can't make it have a button. It's just not a friendly, friendly place in the world. And when you become a little more comfortable with using your own site, you suddenly figure out how much you can do.KJ (25:34):I think a lot of people who have a website don't realize that you can have pages on your website that aren't immediately visible to every visitor to your website. And it's not that they're hidden. It's not that someone who typed you know, KJDellantonia.com/potatocakes wouldn't get to the potato cakes page, but who's gonna do that? And it's not in your menu. So you can have, you can have a hundred potato cake pages or whatever. And I think even I forget that sometimes.Sarina (26:13):So if you're doing an event in Chicago, you could have kjdellantonia.com/chicago if there was something, a resource there that you wanted those people to have.KJ (26:20):And if you want to, you can buy you can buy a special URL. Like you can create a page within your own website. So it's kjdellantonia.com/potato cakes. But instead you buy the website you know, potato lovers.com and then you just point it, you don't create a website for potatocakelovers.com. You just point it to that page on your website. So there's all kinds of playful things. So for example, this follow KJ link, I just own that and I just point it to different things. Right now it's actually pointed to the Flodesk, which is the email software that I used to create my emails. But it used to be pointed to a page within my website. And before that it was pointed to a Mailchimp page. I can point that wherever I want to.Sarina (27:08):Right. And you actually bring up a really good point, which is it's usually better to point your signup at your own website. Like you have this capacity to point at different places which protects you. But I have a friend who can never leave MailChimp because she has the MailChimp signup link in the back of a 40 book backlist. So she's stuck there at their new higher prices because she can't go and change. She literally can't, because the people that bought that book before now and they read it and click on that link are going to her old spot.KJ (27:50):Yeah, no she's stuck. I remember you telling me about that cause I had kind of fallen into that cause I pointed something that I couldn't unpoint because I forgot things.Sarina (28:01):So I use a service called Genius Links and it's a page short linker, but you can change the destination link of absolutely anything.KJ (28:13):That is very nice because you can't do that with tinyurl.com.Sarina (28:17):Right. So Genius Links is great. There are probably others. I believe smartURL allows you to change the ultimate destination. But the other thing that Genius does (it does several things well, actually) it also points people to the Amazon store of their geographical location. So I can make one Amazon link, but it's a Genius link and if that person is in France, it will take them to Amazon.Fr. And the other thing it does (it pays for itself) is that if you have affiliate accounts at Amazon, Apple, Google, Kobo, (those are the ones that come to mind) you put that information into Genius and it just adds it to every single link. And that is very helpful to me as well. Yeah, not Kobo actually. But anyway, there's lots of ways. So, I just got a check from Apple Affiliates for 500 bucks, which I'm sure paid for my entire year's worth of Genius linking. So it's not just this added expense, but it can actually put money in your pocket.KJ (29:30):So, what's next? Should we look at anything else on my thing specifically?Sarina (29:36):I think your work is cut out for you in a way that is quite doable. You're gonna change some colors around.KJ (29:45):I'm going to just have fewer things up here at the top, I think. There's already some chickens so I'm partly set.Sarina (29:52):You're going to get both of those books on the front page and probably lose some more personal pictures because they won't make as much sense to your novel.KJ (30:02):So I'm just going to abandon some of these pages. I'm just going to make a new page - a new landing page.Sarina (30:12):Just like if you were going to redo chapter four of your work in progress, you wouldn't delete chapter four, you copy it, and tinker until we're satisfied. So this will be the same.KJ (30:23):Yup. That's my plan. Any other thoughts for people as they embark on either changing or creating their own websites?Sarina (30:32):I would look into the Authors Guild if you're really hesitant to play with websites. I would look into Squarespace if you're slightly more adventurous. I dislike WordPress with the fire of a thousand suns, so I can't in good conscience recommend it. Although lots of people like it, I'm not a fan of Wix. Usually the platforms that have a free option look kind of...I don't know, but I don't like them. But one free option that is, you know at least more user friendly is Blogger. Like you can still make a website at Google and it is what it is, but if you need a landing spot and you have no funds to devote to that at this point then there are ways to make happen.KJ (31:26):I'm trying to think if there's anything else we should say about websites before we move on. You should have one.Sarina (31:35):You should have one. It won't sell your book, though. It's great to be find-able and to help you answer questions.KJ (31:45):I wanted to talk about the whole, should I have a blog page? Not me personally, but as a general rule. If a blog feels like a like a mandatory additional task to you, then my thought for you is no, you don't really need to. Cause there's nothing worse than clicking on someone's blog page and seeing three entries from 2016.Sarina (32:11):Right. Well the other thing is you can call it news. And you can just put something there three times a year when you have news. Like, here's my new cover. And the nice thing about having that there is that it's also then you can put the link to that news on Facebook instead of typing the news into Facebook.KJ (32:33):And the other nice thing is that typically if you use the blog software of whatever you are creating, that is designed to be easily updatable. So if you use that for your news, it's designed so that you could just pop in and be like, 'I'll be in Chicago.' And that's it. You don't have to sort of change something that feels more set on your page. So there's reasons to use that software, but maybe not to call it blog.Sarina (33:03):Yeah. It used to be, like 15 years ago. Every agent would say you have to blog. But that's just not true anymore. People consume their news differently.KJ (33:39):The first decision is going to be to go in here, put the two book covers up and close off everything else while I revise it. Basically I'm going to just do that. So if anyone comes in the meantime, there are two book covers, there are links to the books and I'm playing around in the background.Sarina (33:58):Right. And when you link your book, you should do a few vendors. Cause nobody wants to live in a world where Amazon is the only store. No. And we do have that new one.KJ (34:12):What's it called again? I can't remember.Sarina (34:17):Is it BookShop?KJ (34:17):Maybe...Sarina (34:18):We're going to find this and put it in the show notes.KJ (34:20):Yeah, because it's important. Yeah, we've been linking to Indiebound, but it's changing. The booksellers association is creating a new way for authors to link to an Indie supporting platform, which can help you sell books. Cause I will say Indiebound affiliate linking is agonizingly painful (as the person who does it). And also, you listeners typically don't end up buying the book that way. And I get it. But I could see why you're not buying it on Indiebound, but we don't want to link to Amazon because while we're all buying stuff from Amazon, we don't want them to rule the world.Sarina (35:17):So bookshop.org is the new storefront and it's new, new, new, like it just launched within the last four weeks. And they're going to take some of the friction of buying from Indiebound away. So give bookshop.org a look and they also have an affiliate program, but every book that is purchased on here kicks profit into a fund, which is divided among the member bookstores, which is most independent bookstores.KJ (35:48):And the cool thing that they're doing is helping those independent bookstores set up their own websites. So this doesn't really apply to us, but it's kind of neat. I'm pleased, I'm delighted that it's out there.Sarina (35:59):After I read about it, I thought, Oh my goodness, this should not have taken so long.KJ (36:06):Now we got to figure out what we've been reading.Sarina (36:08):Oh, I know. I'm ready. Well, yesterday I opened an envelope and discovered a copy of Chasing Cassandra by Lisa Kleypas inside, which means that at some point I pre-ordered it and I never preorder anything, but I love this author so much and she has a new novel about once a year, which is just about right because if she had more of them, I would never get anything done because she is my queen. She is a romance author, her series is set in the Victorian era, actually in England. But she's so skillful with characters and just so amazing with dialogue that I have to take a few deep breaths after I finish her book and go look at my poor excuse for a book afterwards.KJ (36:59):I think everybody has somebody that is like that. So I have just finished Minor Dramas and Other Catastrophes by Kathleen West. I don't think I've mentioned it on the podcast yet, but I loved it. If you liked The Gifted School, if you have liked books by Tom Perrotta, basically if books set in hothouse schools (public, not boarding schools, that's a different genre) but books set in a hothouse schools full of crazy parents are something that you enjoy (and I do) then this is one for you. It's a really fun story of a dedicated teacher who's a little bit too too intense about teaching her students about the social evils of the world and how the parents around her react to that. It just fun, it's a weekend read, it's entertaining, it's smart, the characters are great. I think you'll enjoy it. So that's Minor Dramas and Other Catastrophes from Kathleen West. Alright, that is our podcast, but before we shut down, let me please remind you to head out to Facebook if you can stand it and join our Facebook group where we don't talk about any of the things that you avoid Facebook for. Instead, we talk about all things writing related, and writerly questions, and just about anything you can get it answered. If you want to find the show notes and the screenshots from the website that we're talking about that's amwritingpodcast.com, which is also where you can find links to support the podcast if you'd like to with a small donation and supporters of the podcast get (pretty much weekly) top fives and small mini podcasts, five minute long shorts, little bits of advice from one of us to all of you that drop right into your podcast player once you get it set up, you don't have to go somewhere special to listen. I think that's cool. That's it. Now you can take us out.Sarina (39:35):Until next week, keep your butt in the chair and your head in the game. This episode of #AmWriting with Jess and KJ was produced by Andrew Parilla. Our music, aptly titled unemployed Monday was written and performed by Max Cohen. Andrew and Max were paid for their services because everyone, even creatives should be paid. This is a public episode. Get access to private episodes at amwriting.substack.com/subscribe

How much do those celebs on The Masked Singer get paid? New music from Justin Timberlake. One of the Shark Tank hosts got scammed out if almost $400,000. Bad guys in the movies can't use iPhones. A new cat food that claims to help with allergies. Guest is Kathleen West, author of "Minor Drams & Other Catastrophes". Dame Helen Mirren comments on Harry and Meghan,

A very binge’able book! We promise, you will not want to put down once you start reading. There is no doubt this will be sold to Hollywood. “A wry and cleverly observed debut novel about the privileged bubble that is Liston Heights High--the micro-managing parents, the overworked teachers, and the students caught in the middle--and the fallout for each of them when the bubble finally bursts. Isobel Johnson knows helicopter parents like Julia Abbott--a stage mom whose world revolves around interfering in her children's lives--come with the territory. Julia resents teachers like Isobel, who effortlessly bond with students, including Julia's own teenagers, who have started pulling further away from her. Isobel has spent her teaching career in Liston Heights side-stepping the community's high-powered families. But when she receives a threatening voicemail accusing her of Anti-Americanism and a "blatant liberal agenda," she realizes she's squarely in the fray. Rather than cowering, Isobel doubles down on her social-justice ideals. Meanwhile, Julia, obsessed with the casting of the high school's winter musical, inadvertently shoves the female student lead after sneaking onto the school campus. The damning video footage goes viral and has far-reaching consequences for Julia and her entire family. With nothing to unite them beyond the sting of humiliation from public meltdowns, Isobel and Julia will find common ground where they least expect it, confronting a secret Facebook gossip site that's stirring up more trouble for this tumultuous, fractured school community.”* *Summary courtesy of Goodreads.

About MINOR DRAMAS & OTHER CATASTROPHES: When a devoted teacher comes under pressure for her progressive curriculum and a helicopter mom goes viral on social media, two women at odds with each other find themselves in similar predicaments, having to battle back from certain social ruin. Isobel Johnson has spent her career in Liston Heights sidestepping the community’s high-powered families. But when she receives a threatening voicemail accusing her of Anti-Americanism and a liberal agenda, she’s in the spotlight. Meanwhile, Julia Abbott, obsessed with the casting of the school’s winter musical, makes an error in judgment that has far-reaching consequences for her entire family. Brought together by the sting of public humiliation, Isobel and Julia learn firsthand how entitlement and competition can go too far, thanks to a secret Facebook page created as an outlet for parent grievances. The Liston Heights High student body will need more than a strong sense of school spirit to move past these campus dramas in an engrossing debut novel that addresses parents behaving badly and teenagers speaking up, even against their own families. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Kathleen West is a veteran middle and high-school teacher. She graduated with a degree in English from Macalester College and holds a Master's degree in literacy education from the University of Minnesota. She lives in Minneapolis with her hilarious husband, two sporty sons, and very bad goldendoodle. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/steve-richards/support

This episode features an author interview with Kathleen West, immediately followed by your guide to new releases for the week of February 11, 2020. For more information on the titles mentioned in this podcast, pleas visit: https://www.facebook.com/BookBistroPodcast/ You can always contact the Book Bistro team by searching @BookBistroPodcast on facebook, or visiting: https://www.facebook.com/BookBistroPodcast/ You can also send an email to: TheBookBistroPodcast@gmail.com For more information on the podcast and the team behind it, please visit: http://anchor.fm/book-bistro.

Author of Minor Dramas & Other Catastrophes Interview begins at 20:20 and ends at 47:20 Links “Digital Book World Bans Macmillan Employees in Response to Library Embargo” by Bradley Metrock at Digital Book World website - January 28, 2020 American Library Association launches campaign against e-book embargo - September 11, 2020 Report on ALA Midwinter 2020 meeting by Andrew Albanese at Publishers Weekly - January 26, 2020 Washington Post coverage of Digital Book World ban of Macmillan eBooks For All petition “How to Make Your iPhone or iPad Read Kindle Books Aloud to you” by Reagan Rose at Redeeming Productivity  Library Extension for Chrome and Firefox via Kevin Kelly at Recommendo Minor Dramas & Other Catastrophes by Kathleen West 5 a.m. Writers Club My January 18, 2020 interview with Joanna Penn, creator of The Creative Penn blog and podcast “Finding the Perfect Comp” by Kathleen West at The Debutante Ball - January 21, 2020 Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty Kathleen West's book tour dates for Minor Dramas The Inside Flap: A Weekly Book Podcast Click here to enable my daily Morning Journal flash briefing at the Alexa Skills store. You will then hear each day's entry by saying, “Alexa, what's new?” For my political podcast, please check out Edge Cast. Right-click here and then click "Save Link As..." to download the audio to your computer, phone, or MP3 player.

Kathleen West, known as "Kitty Kat" by men who subscribed to her sex website, was killed when her husband busted her skull with a liquor bottle, according to court documents. Nancy Grace updates the case of the Alabama soccer mom's murder with death scene investigator Joseph Scott Morgan, forensic psychiatrist Dr. Daniel Bober, defense lawyer Troy Slaten & RadarOnline.com reporter Alexis Tereszcuk. Morgan, prosecutor Wendy Patrick & forensic psychiatrist Dr. Carole Lieberman join Nancy to discuss the mystery of infant twins found dead in a suitcase in Arkansas.

Courts need to assess offenders for traumatic exposures so they can match them to effective services and improve treatment outcomes, says Kathleen West, an expert on trauma-informed care and lecturer at the University of California. In this New Thinking podcast, West discusses what we know about the impact of trauma on litigants and the justice … Continue reading Improving Outcomes by Assessing the Impact of Trauma on Offenders →