Hear us Roar

Christina comes out of a copy-editing background but caught the novel-writing bug when a vivid dream presented her with a story she couldn't shake. She believes young writers shouldn't be afraid to write the book they'd want to read and that an author owes it to herself to push the envelope in terms of imagination, sensuality, and intricate plot lines instead of following trends and standard trope...

After years of non-fiction and business writing, Judith Teitelman fell in love with the more creative side of the craft after a friend dragged her to a regular writing group. In this interview, we discuss how her magical realism tale is an amalgam of both her German grandmother's life story, a long-forgotten journal from an early relationship, and Judith's longtime interest in eastern religion. An...

In this interview, Kathy and I discuss how writing this book meant Kathy had to revisit painful memories from her own childhood as well as the breakup of her marriage, why she decided to take the hybrid route rather than endure the long wait of traditional publication, and her goal to write a book to not only satisfy her creative spirit but also to help others going through the same life challenge...

This novel was eight years in the making after starting life as an award-winning short story but Joyce felt like she had to grow both as a writer and as a student of human psychology before she could do it justice.  She described parting ways with her first agent and switching to a small publisher as well as tips to increase pre-orders and suggestions for turning a novel to a possible screenplay....

It's our 100th podcast and it's with Denny S. Bryce (Wild Women and the Blues, Kensington Books, March 2021). A former professional dancer as well as a marketing entrepreneur, Denny first got acquainted with agents who judged RWA writing contests she entered and eventually chose her agent over others because she was much more interested in Denny's over-all writing and career goals rather than with...

Kathryn's book got a new cover only days before release and published in the middle of not only the pandemic but the post-election furor and the post office debacle (it took some readers two months to receive their books). This historical novel is set in northern California in the 1960's, with the first stirrings of the computer age (Kathryn's brother was a classmate of Steve Wozniak), a rich Sili...

In this interview with Melissa Hunter, we discuss how this story, a fictional quasi-memoir of her grandmother's experiences as a teenager in a concentration camp in Nazi Germany, was one Melissa felt compelled to write but couldn't fully embrace until she became a mother herself. Through the years, she wrote it as a series of joined short stories and even a screenplay until finally settling on wom...

Florence's background in social work as well as her own large extended family informed her decision to write a wide-ranging saga, spanning a century-worth of events, secrets, and history of a close-knit Jewish immigrant family with themes of resilience, mental health challenges, and how decisions made at a point in time cycle through and effect subsequent generations. After finding it difficult to...

When Geeta Schrayter first signed with a small press ten years ago, little did she realize she'd have to eventually wrest back control of her debut, rework the cover and formatting including left-out pages, and re-issue it on her own through Ingram a good decade later. Her story of perseverance will inspire writers whose books deserve a second chance at success in a marketplace where indie publish...

Listen to my interview with Densie Webb where we discuss the pluses and minuses of working with a small press, the value of writer networks, how readers often prefer true-to-life endings over happily-ever-afters, and how not every writer works best with an outline. Densie Webb (not Denise) has spent a long career as a freelance nonfiction writer and editor, specializing in health and nutrition, an...

In my interview with Bhaswati, we discuss how her grandmother's short stories about life as a Pakistani during the partition of India in 1947 provided the seed for her story, how she had to drop a fascinating plot line because she could not locate the necessary historical research, and the difference between the non-fiction writing she's done throughout her career and the tools she needed to learn...

Hear how KJ worked with Author Accelerator's founder, Jennie Nash, for a year before querying, how her previous platform as a well-known non-fiction writer paved the way to quickly finding an agent and a publisher, and how she researched independent bookstores to identify the best candidates to receive a sample copy. And what it's like when your editor calls you on a random Thursday evening during...

In this interview, you'll hear how an early family tragedy provided the inspiration for her story, how her research took her down rabbit holes filled with bugs, how she made a grumpy main character someone readers still want to spend time with, and how parting ways with her first agent led to a perfect fit with not only another agent but a brand-new imprint for women's fiction as well. Rachel Mans...

In this episode, Jaye and I discuss how finding her grandfather's WWI draft card paired with the time she spent living in New Orleans provided the seeds for this historical women's fiction, how the protagonist's name was taken from an old Constance Bennett film, and what it requires in terms of time and energy to publish your own work. JAYE BURKE is a southern historian, genealogist, and bestselli...

In this interview, Grace and I discuss the 25 "life lessons" her older characters imparted to her heroine, how Grace used her beta readers as developmental editors for her manuscript, her decision to use two publicists for different aspects of marketing, and how her absolute best decision was making a book trailer that conveyed not only the story line of her novel in less than two minutes but lent...

In this podcast Madeleine and I discuss how working how working with a developmental editor for three years was instrumental in teaching her what she didn't know about writing, how she researched the difficult subject matter including sexual abuse which occurs in her book, and how an early childhood experience resulted in her life-long interest in true crime. Madeleine Van Hecke writes dark storie...

In this interview we discuss how Paula returned to writing after a 20-year hiatus and switched from romance to women's fiction and why she signed up to go exclusive with Amazon's KDP program. If you've ever wondered about what it would be like to publish your own books, don't miss Paula's advice on finding fans through newsletter subscription programs, how you need to write and edit quickly to sat...

Angela Terry (Charming Falls Apart, Spark Press, August 2020)  talks about how her novel's protagonist was inspired by a woman Angela met casually at a bachelorette party, her decision to publish with a hybrid press rather than self-publish, and how she finds the late-night hours her best time to shut off the rest of the world and concentrate on her writing. Angela is an attorney who formerly prac...

During a wide-ranging talk about such diverse topics as the effect of language on how we view war to a discussion on finding mentors within books themselves to what it means to nurture your creative spirit and grow your talent, Katey reveals herself to be a disciplined, intelligent writer and teacher who thinks deeply about how language and the written word can shape our lives. Katey is the award-...

Sarah's lifelong obsession with Dartmouth as well as her fascination with the challenges that faced her mother's generation of women in the early '70's sparked the idea for this historical novel, which she wrote after spending seven years on a previous one that garnered her an agent but never sold.  We discuss how she reached out directly to bookstores once the pandemic hit, the long tail of book...

Mary Helen talks about the three things she was advised not to do in a debut novel (unfortunately she'd done all three), messaging her "Christmas list" one day before her pub date with specific, simple things they could do to help her, why she's given up on Pinterest, and why she's writing the rough draft of her next novel as pure dialogue. Mary Helen Sheriff is a co-founder of Bookish Road Trip....

In this interview,  Regina describes how she used her childhood experiences in the Catholic church to inform her protagonist's guilt and shame over a long-buried secret, how she changed her original title during the publication process, and her positive experience going with a hybrid press for her first novel. And be sure to listen to the end to find out what Regina has in common with the Queen of...

Quế Mai shares how she wanted to write a novel set during the Vietnam War from the missing perspective of the Vietnamese themselves, specifically the women, who she felt were often portrayed in literature as having no agency, when actually they were unbelievably strong and resilient. We discuss how she wove ger country's food, culture, proverbs and beliefs into a rich tapestry of a debut that made...

A child raised in both Mormon and Muslim religious traditions, Ehsaneh worked in Iran for several years and her experiences there form the backdrop to her novel about  three people whose lives are upended by the 2009 Green Wave protests in that country. We discuss how the 2020 US election echoed many of the themes she explored in her book, how she found her perfect agent, going on sub but not sell...

We discuss Valerie's transition from a corporate writer to writing fiction after her retirement. She's a fan of  book clubs and built her author platform partly through becoming a regular book reviewer for the national marketing firm Book Trib. In addition to her fans in the US, she's made recent inroads into the library market in such far-off places as Singapore and Australia. Valerie grew up in...