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This week our guest is Joan Fernandez (Saving Vincent: A Novel of Jo van Gogh, She Writes Press, April 2025). We talk about what happened when a competing book about Jo from the prestigious Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam came out right when Joan was ready to query, how her read 900 letters from Vincent for research, and how she's still marketing her novel 18 months after launch. And listen for our i...

This week we welcome Meg Hamand to the podcast (Diamonds in Auschwitz, Greenleaf Publishing, March 2025). We discuss the books that kept her sane while writing about a horrific period in history while living through another (COVID), how she writes her first draft straight through without looking back, and how going with a hybrid publisher was a mini-course in learning about the publishing industry...

Our podcast guest this week is Jill Amber Chafin (Shaken, Vine Leaves Press, March 2025). Hear how the inspiration for Jill's debut occurred in a doctor's office, how writing a book about a controversial (and dark) subject matter hurt her when looking for an agent, and how she eventually found her publisher through a Twitter post that went viral. And we spend time talking about how Jill found her...

This week our podcast guest is Tatiana Goded (A Trip Towards the Sunset, indie published, March 2025). Tatiana's debut follows 3 women facing mid-life challenges and dovetails with her own journey moving from Spain to New Zealand and from a scientific field to being a life coach while also embracing her dream to write. We discuss what's it like to rediscover your passion, how social media can be u...

Our podcast guest this week is Raquel Y. Levitt (The Seer, Acorn Publishing, March 2025). We discuss the originals of her debut which started as a single clear image she   saw of a woman in a marketplace in the 1800's and why she decided going for her MFA was the next right move for her. Then we move into the tricky challenge of marketing a mixed genre (historical fiction with paranormal elements)...

  This week our podcast guest is Angelika Morini (Do You See Me Now?, indie published, February 2025). Angelika, who lives and writes from Germany, discusses the challenges of querying publishing professionals from overseas. We delve into how a short story kept growing until she realized she was writing a book, how her plot (two sisters at a retreat to study The Hero's Journey) provided a structur...

Our podcast guest this week is Jen Sinclair (There's Always A Price, indie-published, September 2024). We talk about her early love of writing (her first book, a police procedural with a twist, was written in 8 th grade), how she handled revising this debut to give her protagonist more agency through a structural change and how she's a believer in always needing to be open to changing your story b...

This week our podcast guest is Kim Gottlieb-Walker (Lenswoman in Love – a Novel of the 1960's and '70's, indie published, February 2025). Kim shares the complete re-writes she did on her debut based on critique group feedback, why she calls herself a patchwork writer, and the story behind the support group of women writers over 70 which she founded. We discuss her life as a photographer in Hollywo...

Our podcast guest this week is Barbara Burton (A Walk Down Rushville, Manuscripts Press, April 2024). Barbara, a lover of true crime series, has a unique publishing experience to share. She signed with her press before completing her novel and they put her through a 6-month rigorous deep dive into craft first with strict completion deadlines, write-in Zoom meetings with a cohort, and detailed exer...

T his Special Edition podcast features long-time WFWA member Julie Carrick Dalton (The Forest Becomes Her, St. Martin's Press, July 2026) who has just published her third book with a Big Five publisher with another one due in 2028. Rather than focus on her publishing journey, we dive deep into the writing process itself, including finding your "why", emotional mining your own psyche for true emoti...

This week our guest is Lindsay Marie Morris ( The Last Letter from Sicily , Storm Publishing, January 2025). We discuss how actually going to your book's location beats online research, the difference between writing as a journalist and as a novelist, and why it's good to have a second novel in your back pocket when you're querying your debut. We also explore content creation as a marketing approa...

Our podcast guest this week is N. J. Mastro (Solitary Walker: A Novel of Mary Wollstonecraft, Black Rose Writing, February 2025) Nancy's debut is an historical, biographical novel of the woman most people consider the first true feminist. We discuss how to deal with the news that two novels with the same general subject matter are being released right before yours, how she had to narrow her focus...

This week's podcast guest is Lisa F. Rosenberg (Fine, I'm a Terrible Person, Sibylline Press, January 2025). What happens when you come across a character so juicy you want someone to write about them and the only person who can is you? If you're Lisa F. Rosenberg, you go back to school to get an MFA, make your thesis a debut novel, and enter the world of writing. We discuss her journey, including...

Our guest this week is Evelyn Ann Casey (Candlewood, Three Towers Press, February 2025). Evelyn's debut, set in the 1970's, is considered historical fiction and we commiserate about how old that makes us feel. Then we discuss how Flea Bag's second season with its "hot priest" theme helped her see deeper into her own novel which centers around both a predatory priest and a forbidden love story. Lis...

This week's podcast guest is Angela Douglas (Every Fall, indie published, January 2025). Initially published by Rising Action, Angela bought her rights back to her debut and is now releasing her second book as well, The Mentor. We discuss having to take mental-health breaks during the writing because of more serious subject matter, and how many of the critiques she got back from beta readers and e...

Our guest this week is Mary Hansen (The Traveling Archivist Eastern Oregon, Luminare Press, January 2025). We delve into the differences between a librarian and an archivist, how Mary thinks of archival research as a 'creative act', how a PBS documentary provided the inspiration for her debut, and the positives of working with a book coach who doesn't try to change your story. Then she discusses h...

This week's guest is Wanda Penalver Bevan (The Rains of Wishton, The Book Reality Experience, February 2025). We discuss writing dual timelines, point of view, and what it's like to write a "story within a story". Wanda describes how she used an existing book club as beta readers before her book was published, her experiences with a hybrid press, and her "try everything and find out what sticks" a...

Our guest this week is Lisa Montanaro (Everything We Thought Was True, Red Adept, January 2025). We discuss how Lisa taps into her background as an actress to "method act" her novels as she writes, including acting out scenes and writing scenes out of order based on her personal headspace that day. In the publication arena, she points out pluses and minuses to going traditional but with a smaller...

This week's guest is Rosa Kwon Easton (White Mulberry, Lake Union, December 2024). We discuss how an unusual query approach got Rosa her dream agent, who helped her strategically pinpoint editors during submission resulting in a two-book deal with Amazon and a selection as a First Reads. We also delve into why you might want to hire a publicist, financing your own book tour, and how your college a...

Our guest this week is Kristin Owens (Elizabeth Sails, Rising Action Publishing, October 2024). We discuss how Kristin's critique group convinced her to write a novel instead of short fiction, how a trip on the Queen Mary inspired her setting, and how she learned to stop being kind to her main character and to get tough instead. Then we discuss how she's paired with cruise lines like Cunard to mar...

This week we talk with Faye Arcand (Inside Outside, indie published November 2024). Learn how a best-seller psychological suspense informed Faye's debut plot, how she delved into a fourteen-year-old's brain, and how having an agent didn't work out for her. Then we discuss the importance of an author website and how having a plan for marketing makes everything smoother. And don't miss her quirky se...

Our guest this week is Stephanie Claypool (A Thousand Tiny Stitches, Atmosphere Press, November 2024) Here how tips about outlining from both James Patterson and J.K. Rowling were key to Stephanie's finding a new way to approach her novel, which she wrote out in narrative form and on a spreadsheet first before drafting a word. Hear why she chose a hybrid press over a small press and how she plans...

This week we talk with Zelly Ruskin (Not Yours to Keep, She Writes Press, October 2024). We delve into the 3 unrelated parts of her past—her former career, an ex-boyfriend, and her own experiences with IVF—that coalesced into the spine of her debut novel, how she put off major surgery to finish her rough draft, and how she found her way into a male man character by reading Jane Austen. Hear her ca...

Our guest this week is Kay Smith-Blum (Tangles, Black Rose Writing, December 2024). We discuss how two unrelated occurrences in one week—one a vivid dream, the second cocktails with an old friend—led Kay into a nine-month rabbit hole of research   about Hanford, WA, a former nuclear facility on the Columbia River which produced plutonium for the US nuclear weapons programs during the Cold War era....

This week's guest is Dena Polko (Don't Drop Dad, Maine Authors Publishing, October 2024). An event in Dena's family 25 years ago planted the kernel of a book idea that she finally brought to life during the pandemic in her debut novel about a close-knit Italian family, complete with feuds, secrets, and lots of scrumptious recipes. A marketing professional for non-profits in a previous career, Dena...