Passions & Prologues

Jude Atwood is a teacher and author of the award-winning debut middle grade novel, Maybe There Are Witches, but the science of baking is where he finds pure joy. He's baked over 40 different types of pies and cakes and loves tinkering with recipes. In this chat, we breakdown how this baking has helped his writing and all about his new novel!

Sidney Karger is an award-winning screenwriter for film and television with credits including Billy on the Street, Comedy Central, and Saturday Night Live. Growing up near Chicago, he was raised on a steady diet of improv and sketch comedy from some of the greats of Second City and Upright Citizens Brigade. It's a shared love Adam also adores. They also get into his incredible new romantic comedy...

Margaret Owen creates elaborate and fantastical worlds that feel so vibrant you can almost touch them. Her books are magical and fully realized and this comes from the origins of her creative story-as an artist. Margaret discusses her fascination with visual arts and her incredible, instant bestselling new book Painted Devils.

Anissa Gray was raised in a world of music, specifically gospel music. It's inspired her latest novel, Life and other love songs. In this discussion, we get into how the music of her childhood home shaped her work and her life at large. We get into the music of her adult life and returning to gospel later in her life.

It's a bonus episode with friend of the show, Mallory O'Meara! We are dishing out loads of book recommendations but before you get to those, go preorder her new book, Girls Make Movies, right now! Books mentioned in this episode: Saturday Night at the Lakeside Supper Club by J. Ryan Stradal The September House by Carissa Orlando Magdalena by Candi Sary Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano Satisfactio...

H.G. Parry's newest book, The Magician's Daughter has a few magical animal characters and when you learn about her interests, you'll understand why. She adores mice and rabbits both in the literary sense and the "own a bunch of them" sense. This is a fascinating discussion about her deep research about these animals and their relationship with stories as well as what it's like owning them as pets.

J. Ryan Stradal is the author of New York Times bestseller Kitchens of the Great Midwest and national bestseller The Lager Queen of Minnesota but somehow his latest novel Saturday Night at the Lakeside Supper Club, might just be his most midwestern book yet. He tells the stories of generations of a family-run diner, what it means to the community, and the stress it brings the people who run it. In...

Rebecca Makkai is borderline obsessive with language. When you read her books, it feels like every sentence and every word is exactly where it should be. When you find out that she's on a quest to learn one of the world's most difficult languages, it's easy to understand why words matter so much to her. Rebecca's latest book, I Have Some Questions for You, uses her obsession with language to tell...

New York Times bestselling author Lisa Scottoline has written 35 books in 35 years but her true passion is her love of of animals all shapes and sizes. From her trusted best friend dogs, to horses, to chickens Lisa loves them all. In this scatterplot chat, Adam and Lisa discuss their senior dogs, her new bestseller Loyalty, and what sparked her to realize she wanted to keep adding animals. This is...

Kristin Loesch joins the podcast to discuss her new book The Last Russian Doll as well as her love of flash and experimental fiction. It was a passion she discovered during the pandemic and it's been a great way for to keep her writing skills sharp in between novels. She offers all kinds of tips for aspiring writers and fans of short stories. Enjoyed this episode? Be sure to rate and review us on...

Jenny Jackson has taken the literary world by storm with her new book Pineapple Street and the heart of that story lies in the heart of her own community. During the pandemic, Jenny found herself obsessing over her community of Brooklyn Heights. She researched the buildings, the prices of the real estate, and the people who lived there. An obsession begat a story which begat an instant place on th...

What would you do if your entire town lived in a single building, couldn't leave, and then found yourself trapped? That's what Iris Yamashita's novel City Under One Roof asks. In this discussion, we chat about her new murder mystery based on a real Alaskan town, her life as an Oscar-nominated screenplay writer, and her rediscovery of the joys of playing music... specifically movie scores. Enjoyed...

Melissa De La Cruz is well know for her bestselling young adult novels, incredible book festivals, and her experience creating stories in Hollywood. What people might not know about her is her fierce adoration of being a mother. In this chat, we breakdown what it means to be a classroom mother and how her children's friends have become beta readers for her. We then discuss her new novel The Headma...

Alma Katsu built an entire career in intelligence before the literary world discovered her talent for writing historical horror with The Fervor, The Deep, & The Hunger. Now, with Red London, she returns to the world of secrecy and thrillers. Her initial novel in the series, Red Widow, kept readers guessing until the final page with it's political intrigue and spy games and Red London does the same...

Hannah Whitten took the literary world by storm with her debut For the Wolf & it's follow up For the Throne. Now she's back with a magical, mysterious heisty novel that you won't be able to put down... The Foxglove King! In this chat, Hannah and Adam talk about where she learned to block a story scene by scene... on the stage! They discuss musical theater, how she sees character interactions, and...

GennaRose Nethercott's book Thistlefoot, is all Adam has been able to talk about for months. It's macabre, spooky atmosphere starts to make a lot more sense when you learn about her life long fascination with all things creepy. She researches for the hit podcast Lore, has a clown for a parent, and travels around with a puppet show. In short, her life is a joyful mystery each day!

Leah Konen knows how to craft a thriller. She's made a career out of writing page turning stories that keep you on the edge of your seat and You Should Have Told me is no different. You'll be left guessing until the very end. It's almost as if she's made it her quest to build out a stunning narrative. Which makes when sense when you hear about her love of the long form adventures she's fallen in l...

We're back with another bonus episode loaded with book recommendations! Adam's buddy Tina, from the popular Book Talk, etc., podcast , stops by to spend an hour offering up backlist book recommendations that are sure to add STACKS to your TBR list... sorry, not sorry. Tina's current read: The Writing Retreat by Julia Bartz Adam’s current read: Maame by Jessica George Tina’s Book picks How it went...

Mimi Herman's new book, The Kudzu Queen, is all about a mysterious man who comes into town looking to shake things up. In her own way, Mimi was that strange person when she bought a house, nearly site unseen, that she could afford to purchase but could not afford to pay someone else to fix up. And so, she learned plumbing. And painting. And electric. And a million other things that went into home...

Nick Brooks is an author hip hop artist and an award-winning filmmaker. All his life, he's find stories in the music he listens to, transforming them into films, lyrics, and, now, his massively awaited new novel, Promise Boys. In this discussion, Adam and Nick chat about his foundational love of rap, the groups he fell in love with, and how he determines what medium to tell his stories in. Enjoyed...

Grady Hendrix’s new novel, How to Sell a Haunted House, is the culmination of what his career as a horror novelist has been all about: building terror through emotion and experiences we can all relate to. In this discussion, Adam and Grady chat about how these emotional cores that transform into fear sprung from his original passion for folklore and the horror that comes from it.  They discuss his...

Jennifer Herrera's new book, The Hunter, is a psychological thriller that will leave you guessing every step of the way. When you learn about her extensive knowledge of both philosophy and psychology in this chat, you'll uncover how she was able to weave such an incredible mystery that is also packed with feeling and emotion. This wide-ranging chat goes into her studies in college, her budding int...

In Victoria Garza's new memoir, The Field, she writes about the unspeakable tragedy that took place in her family when she was a child. Between that time and now, Victoria has gone on a journey to understand what took place in the past and what has taken place since then in her own mind. In this discussion, Victoria and Adam discuss her childhood growing up in the vegetable fields of Ohio and her...

Millions of copies of Cornelia Maude Spelman's books have been sold thanks to their ability to help children understand emotions and come to terms with life experiences they're having for the first time. Now, she's written a memoir titled Missing in an attempt to understand the life experiences of her own family. In this discussion, Adam and Cornelia discuss family heirlooms and the things that ge...

Lesley Livingston, author of QUEEN AMONG THE DEAD, adores uncovering the history of place. She seeks out cities and countrysides to explore and learns about the pockets of forgotten lore that lie within them. There, she finds her stories. In this discussion, we talk about the incredible little known history of New York City before talking about Celtic magic and myth that sits at the basis of her l...