Books, Banter, & Beyond

Romance with bite! 🐺🔥 This week on Books, Banter, & Beyond, Donna R. Madden sits down with Franklin, Tennessee author Beth DeWeese, who writes spicy, small-town shifter and paranormal romance with heart, humor, and a whole lot of escapism. Beth breaks down what makes a shifter different from a werewolf, why her Howling Forest Shifters world has fated mates discovered at age 25 (thank you, pe...

Can a book be faith-filled and real? Emily Camp thinks so, and she's been proving it for 13 years. This week on Books, Banter & Beyond, Donna sits down with Emily Camp, a TikTok friend and indie author of young adult and new adult mysteries and romances. She has 28 published books, and every one of them is fade to black. Emily talks about why her teen characters with real faith and real proble...

In this episode, Donna R. Madden sits down with author Leslie Crowne, who also writes as Renee Regent , for a candid conversation about pen names, indie publishing, romance, fantasy, book marketing, tropes, and the realities of building an author career. Leslie has been publishing as Renee Regent since 2016, writing contemporary romance and supernatural romantic suspense. When she decided to step...

Author, ghostwriter, podcaster, and audio drama producer Leani Lopez joins Donna for a conversation about what happens when you refuse to pick just one creative lane. Leani (spelled L-E-A-N-I) is a Puerto Rican author who left her full-time job in 2018 to write full-time — and has since ghostwritten more than twenty romance novels, released two books under her own name, produced two full-cast audi...

Meredith Shelton has been a registered nurse for 31 years — and dreaming of owning a bookstore since she was 12. This month, that dream opens its doors. Donna sits down with Meredith just weeks before the grand opening of Common Ground Coffee and Books in Lebanon, Tennessee, to talk about jumping in with both feet, building a business outside your wheelhouse, and creating a place where a community...

Host Donna R. Madden sits down with contemporary romance author Jessica Everly for a warm, tip-packed conversation about writing closed-door love stories, surviving the query trenches, and finding a home in the indie author community. Jessica is a former speech-language pathologist and stay-at-home mom of three (with a fourth on the way) who put "write a book" on her bucket list for years before h...

Donna sits down with horror author Zachariah Chamberlin — a former firefighter and paramedic turned self-published-then-hybrid author — for a deep dive into a genre Donna herself has never been able to stomach on the page. By the end of the conversation, Zach might just have talked her into it. In this episode: Zach traces his love of horror back to childhood nights watching Friday Fright Night wi...

This week on Books, Banter, and Beyond, the tables turn! Tonia takes the host seat to interview romance author Donna R. Madden about her books, her writing process, and everything happening in the world of Orlando Valley. (Also featuring: alien eyeball headbands, a very vocal dog, and brand-new microphones we barely know how to use.) Grab a coffee and settle in — we cover a LOT. In this episode: D...

What does it actually take to go from zero to 16 books as a full-time indie author? In this episode of Books, Banter & Beyond , Donna sits down with thriller and cozy mystery author Sara Ennis for one of the most packed, honest conversations yet. Sara is the author of The Dollhouse and many other titles, and she has the kind of hard-won publishing knowledge that most authors spend years trying...

What happens when your dreams literally write your books for you? In this episode of Books, Banter & Beyond , Donna sits down with indie author Ella Graff, a single mom from Buffalo whose writing journey began with vivid, haunting dreams she couldn't ignore. Ella is the author of Origins of Rage , a spicy paranormal romantic thriller featuring a heroine who dreams murders before they happen an...

What does it look like to run a fully mobile bookstore out of a 6x12 trailer in Southwest Florida? In this episode, Donna sits down with Vanessa, owner of Breezy Bookshop, for a conversation about books, community, and what it really means to champion indie authors. Vanessa shares how Breezy Bookshop got its name (hint: it involves a corgi named Bree), why she traded a 10x10 tent for a fully air-c...

Welcome to the very first edition of Tuesdays with Tonia! On the last Tuesday of every month, Donna sits down with her sister-in-law Tonia, fellow romance reader and the ultimate beta reader, for a cozy, no-agenda chat about all things bookish. In this first episode, they dig into their reading histories, how the romance genre has evolved over the years, and what actually draws them to a book (spo...

What does it look like to finally sit down and write the book that's been living in your head? In this episode, Donna chats with debut author DeAnna K. Fields about her journey from dreaming about writing to actually doing it, and everything that came after. DeAnna writes cozy, closed-door romance with happily ever afters, all set in her fictional small town of Shepherd's Grove. Her debut novella,...

What does it really take to choose the indie path and make it work? In this episode, Donna sits down with author K.M. Ryan for a candid conversation about life as an indie author — the creative freedom, the community, and everything in between. They dig into why K.M. chose indie publishing over the traditional route, what draws her to writing novellas in addition to full-length novels, and how col...

I'm sitting down with Emily Hensley, owner of Small Fry Marketing, for a conversation packed with real talk about indie author marketing: the questions you've been asking, the concerns holding you back, and a few things you probably haven't even thought about yet. Whether you're just starting out or looking to level up, you'll walk away with real, actionable advice. https://www.smallfrymarketing.c...