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Nina has no end of interesting tie-ins to her book that she uses in presentations and social media posts from the history and culture of Venice, to ancient poisons, to the world of art and art patrons, to Talmudic scholars and famous courtesans. Her three-part series straddles the line between women's fiction, historical mystery, and historical romance and her rich background, from studying illust...

Our guest this week is Chris Posti (Falling Apart, Falling for You, Elk Lake Publishing, April 2022). During the pandemic lockdown, Chris followed the sage wisdom of "write the book you'd like to read" and penned a coming-of-age story for women over fifty. Hear how a serendipitous shared birthday resulted in a publishing contract with a well-known Christian small press and how having a husband who...

Our guest this week is E.J. Tanda (Queen of Secrets, indie published, June 2022). The book Twilight had a profound effect on E.J. when she was suffering a low period in her life and she vowed to try her hand at moving people in the same way. Very much a pantser, her characters present themselves as fully formed and dictate the story to her. Her debut, inspired by a family story, features the uniqu...

Listen here to our interview with Karla Huebner (In Search of the Magic Theater, Regal House, June 2022). We discuss this novel's quick appearance (3 months to write) but long gestation period (8 years to publish), what it's like to work with a small press, her self-imposed production goals, and how her own life's journey often informs that of her characters. And stay tuned to the end to learn abo...

Our guest this week is Jen Craven (Best Years of Your Life, Indie published, August 2022). Listen in as we discuss why she decided on an academic setting for her debut, the pluses of indie publishing, the importance of professionalism when it comes to book covers, how she used comparable authors to formulate her own marketing plan, and how she's found her niche writing about characters where one d...

This week's podcast features Robin Maass (The Walled Garden, Spark Press, May 2022). We discuss MFA programs and how they often neglect to teach story structure, and how, as a result, she had to move from "discovering the book" or pantsing to realizing you need stepping stones along the way. We explore how every book has some kind of mystery at its core and how important it is to spend time figuri...

Our guest this week is Jody Herpin (Relative Consequences, Indie Published, March 2022). Jody always starts any new writing project by getting to know her characters, which includes not only a lengthy questionnaire, but a "face to face" interview, and a visual portfolio, including facial features, how they dress, and how they move. Listen to hear the journey of her debut, her best advice to newer...

This week's podcast features Carol Orange (A Discerning Eye, Cavan Bridge Press, October 2020). Carol's background in both art (art books in London, art dealer in Boston) and publishing (editorial assistant at a Big Five house) provided plenty of ideas for her art heist novel centering around the looting of 13 masterpieces from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum over 30 years ago. We discuss how...

 This week's podcast features Suzanne Mattaboni (Once in a Lifetime, Touchpoint Press, March 2023). There's much more to 1980's America than disco balls and Andy Warhol and in Mattaboni's debut novel we get to explore the avant-garde art scene, New Wave culture, and what it was like for a young woman trying to figure out what she wants in life amid the turmoil and energy of a burgeoning new era, s...

Our guest this week is Linda MacKillop (The Forgotten Life of Eva Gordon, Kregel Publications May 2022). Linda took a rough draft she'd worked on for years into her new MFA program and emerged with a polished manuscript, including a central character often likened to Olive Ketteridge. We discuss what it's like when your protagonist is both difficult and suffering from memory loss, (which of course...

Our podcast guest this week is Grace Marcus (Visible Signs, Touchpoint Press, May 2022). Grace, a debut author at 75 years old, shares lessons she learned along the line, including not signing with the first agent who makes an offer to trusting your gut when it comes to major rewrites. We discuss her marketing initiatives which include talks at senior centers and short writing workshops in exchang...

This week's podcast guest is RLynn Johnson (Cry of the Heart, MilSpeak Books, May 2022). Taking inspiration from her years spent in the JAG Corps of the DOD, Robin fashioned a story of long-term female friendship and her first-hand experiences of being a female officer in the Army into her debut novel and then through a networking contact, found a publisher who specializes in stories told by milit...

This week's guest is Janis Robinson Daly (The Unlocked Path, Black Rose Writing, August 2022). March is Women's History Month and how better to celebrate this popular sub-genre of women's fiction than with Janis, an active member of the WFWA Facebook sub-group and a debut writer whose great-great grandfather inspired her fictionalized story of the first women's medical college at the turn of the c...

This week's podcast is with Erin Litteken (The Memory Keeper of Kyiv, Boldwood Books, May 2022). We discuss the serendipitous timeliness of her book, which examines the tactic of Holodomor (or    forced starvation) which Russia utilized during their invasion of Ukraine in the 1930's, her experiences with a newer small press based in England, her best advice to beginning writers, and her love of th...

This week's podcast is with Melanie Mitzner (Slow Reveal, Inanna Publishing, May 2022). Melanie s tarted her writing career as a playwright and screenwriter but switched to the novel form for this story of an artist examining her life choices in 1990's New York. We discuss her decision to print with Inanna (renowned feminist press), differences when you publish in Canada, the research needed to ca...

Listen to this week's podcast with our guest Karen Winn (Our Little World, Dutton, May 2022). Karen's an example of how helpful writing conferences can be as she met her dream agent at a Muse and the Marketplace event in Boston and then worked with her on an extensive revision before going out on sub. Hear what it's like to publish through an imprint of the Big Five, including cover design, titlin...

This week's podcast is with Judith Brenner (The Moments Between Dreams, Greenleaf Book Group Press, May 2022).   An historical fiction which encompasses not only the polio epidemic but also issues of domestic abuse, Judith's novel is a homage to both her mother and grandmother as well as the sacrifices women made in the years directly after the war. We discuss her publisher's process for picking t...

This week's podcast is with Eileen Brill (A Letter In The Wall, Spark Press, May 2022). We discuss how fate dropped her story's inciting incident into her lap during a home renovation, the Facebook group her husband cultivated that wound up propelling her book to Amazon heights, and how she's learned an important lesson – that authors need to embrace being an active cheerleader for their own books...

This week's podcast is with Kimberly Nixon (Rock Bottom,Tennessee, indie-published, April 2022). Using an apocryphal family legend about her grandmother as the springboard, Kimberly set out to tell the story of an impoverished woman during the depression who went to prison for robbing trains. We discuss the delicate balance of giving yourself permission to change characters and details to further...

Our latest podcast episode features Kris Spisak (The Baba Yaga Mask, Wyatt-MacKenzie Publishing, April 2022). Kris, the previous author of three non-fiction books on writing, always knew her first novel would center around Ukraine, the country of origin of her grandparents and extended family. Little did she know that the initial concept would take 8 years to come to fruition and then, through an...

Listen here to our interview with Zoe Disigny (The Art of Traveling Strangers, Mascot Publishing, February 2022). Hear her story of initially querying agents with a 20,000 word manuscript, her thoughts on how her own self-perception changed during the writing of her novel, how she went about choosing a hybrid publisher, and how she was able to enrich her book through weaving in knowledge from her...

Here's our latest podcast with Sarah Branson (A Merry Life, Sooner Started Press, April 2022). Our discussion ranges from what it's like to build a world that's set 300 years in the future but still keep it character-driven ("Like historical fiction that just hasn't happened yet") to a wise coach's advice to Sarah about marketing an indie book ("No one can buy a book they haven't heard of") and wh...

Listen here to our newest podcast with Maggie Giles (The Things We Lost, Rising Action, April 2022). We discuss how her book's concept is a twist on the Sliding Doors trope of "what if our lives had gone differently" and took her seven years to write, how she took a chance and signed with a novice publisher as their very first author, and how it's imperative that writers discuss with their signifi...

This week's podcast is with Jen Gilroy (The Sweetheart Locket, Orion Dash/Orion Books, March 2022). Unlike most of our guests, Jen has been publishing since 2017 but in the romance category, so we discuss what's involved in switching to a new genre while still holding tight to your unique creative voice. As a writer who thinks strategically about her career, Jen shares insights into how British an...

Rundquist's book is an epistolary novel, written entirely in messages, primarily emails, between two friends, so it presented unique and tricky challenges in terms of dialogue and character development. We discuss Janet's belief in touching her current story on a daily basis to keep it fresh in her mind and how getting clear about what her goals were for her debut led to her decision to be her own...