Hear us Roar

Our host Maggie Smith leads a roundtable discussion with the three finalists for the WFWA Star Award for Women's Fiction/Debut category as they discuss what it means to write "women's fiction", the trajectory of their writing careers, finding camaraderie with their peers, the value of book awards, and what they've learned from readers since their book's publication.   Panelists are:  Julie Carrick...

Julia Daily's debut novel had its seeds in the author's personal search over forty years ago for her birth mother, a time before DNA tests and genealogical records were available online. Her tale of three disparate women, meeting at a maternity home hospital in New Orleans, has resonated with adoptees like herself, with its message of joy, hope, and renewal. We also discuss Julia's podcast, aptly...

Sarah's book started out as a kind of third person typed journal, a reflection on a "what if" situation she encountered in her psychiatric practice. Once it came time to publish, you'll laugh along with us at her fairy tale story of querying Gillian Flynn's agent out of the blue even though she was closed to submissions and being offered representation within a day. We also discuss the pros and co...

This novel has its roots in Karen seeking answers as a mother as to how to raise a good son which eventually resulted in her fulfilling her lifelong dream to live on a Greek island for a year, where she was disciplined enough to write her first draft, despite the lure of the seaside location. We talk about synchronicity—how sometimes a book or a person or a place comes along at precisely the momen...

Hear how C. took events from her own life, including her Italian heritage, her closeness with her grandfather, and her love of cooking, and worked it into her debut novel. We delve into the fallout that occurred with her initial publisher, her decision to indie publish rather than starting back at square one, and how helpful the webinars available through WFWA were in teaching her the fundamentals...

Here how the inspiration from this story came from a " what if " moment while Penny was hiking with friends in the mountainous Tsitsikamma region of South Africa where she lives, how she had to change the ending of her novel because her character insisted on it, and how after years in fact-based journalism she rediscovered her childhood joy in telling made-up stories. Penny Haw worked as a journal...

I love Elizabeth's suggestion to "put your pen on the paper and see what happens." When she did that to an earlier manuscript that she initially conceived of as a romantic comedy, the result was a story of three sisters dealing with the aftermath of their mother's suicide when they were children. We discuss how her husband found her a literary agents, how it took three manuscripts for her agent to...

This week's podcast guest is Julee Balko (The Things We Keep, GenZ Publishing, July 2021). The impetus for Julee's book was her own grief following the death of her mother and her frustration at not finding books which dealt in a realistic and honest way with this crucial life experience. We discuss what it was like publishing with a small press, the difference between an author and a writer, and...

Our latest podcast is with Lyn Liao Butler (The Tiger Mom's Tale, Berkeley, July 2021). Hear how Lyn taught herself to write by tearing apart (literally and figuratively) novels she enjoyed, analyzing their story structure, their characterizations, and their narrative arcs and how she is a stalwart plotter, often going months without writing a word while she's planning her next book in her head. W...

Amanda came to novel writing from a background as an actress where she had previously penned scripts for herself and others both for films and on the stage, but found she had to use very different muscles when it came to crafting a novel-length story loosely based on a real-life situation she and her husband experienced in New York. But during the querying process, her years of going on auditions...

As an essential worker during the pandemic, Kristina learned first hand what it was like to have little control over either the risks or rewards of her job so after she finished her novel (loosely based on the story of a Standard Oil heiress paired with themes and imagery from Taylor Swift's album Folklore), she went a different route. Taking control of the process, she became art director and mod...

Amanda talks about the book that gave her permission to write "outside the lines", what she learned about her own life through exploring the narcissistic antagonist in her novel, and the process of identifying where her book fit on the genre shelf. She also takes us step by step through her process of learning, through podcasts and YouTube videos, how to create her own book on Vellum and launch it...

Our guest this week is the person that generally hosts this podcast Maggie Smith (Truth and Other Lies, Ten16 Press, March 2022) and she's interviewed by book editor and women's fiction author Tiffany Yates Martin, WFWA 2021 Scribe.  Hear Maggie's story of how her book went through various iterations before she found a plot which could highlight the relationship between a daughter, her mother, and...

Mary Camarillo grew up in North Carolina. Her father worked in aerospace and was transferred to Southern California when she was fourteen. After high school, she went to work for the post office. It might be genetic--both her grandfathers were railway mail clerks. She sorted mail, sold stamps, worked in the accounting office, went to night school, and earned a degree in business administration and...

When Tavi wrote this debut about four female roadies who take a break to spend time at a Tuscan villa where each examines her life, she based them on women she knew from her time as a lighting specialist touring around the country with rock stars like Norah Jones. It was only after the book was complete that she realized she should run the characters by their real-life counterparts (luckily they w...

Jenn Bouchard (First Course, Touchpoint Press, June 2021) combined her interest in food, her love of New England's coastal towns, and her belief in the power of reinvention to write a debut with both romantic themes, a strong sisterhood component, and a seaside setting. Early in her writing journey, Jenn made a point of going to author talks for inspiration, even driving hours in the rain to meet...

Our guest on the podcast this week is Kathleen Basi (A Song for The Road, Alcove Press, May 2021). We discuss the importance of how you pitch your book in your query letter (by changing her focus and repositioning her novel, Kathleen raised her request rate from zero to 25%), how she had to learn to simplify her plot points rather than pile more on, and what it felt like to have two great agent of...

This week's interview is with Kris Clink (Goodbye, Lark Lovejoy, Spark Press, April 2021). You can tell by listening that this is an author who can't help adding a bit of humor to her narratives despite dealing with serious subjects like the death of a spouse and PTSD. We discuss how she finished her debut and immediately started querying, only to find it needed serious developmental work. After w...

It's almost like this book had been waiting for Margaret to write it – she lived for a few years in France growing up, has always been fascinated by Napoleon's story, and dreamed of someday writing a novel. Finally the stars aligned. Here how she was able to travel to the island of Elba in the middle of the Atlantic and actually stay in the house where Napoleon was exiled for the last four years o...

After a long business career that included running a Montessori school and teaching deaf children, Karen decided to get serious about her writing and four years later, indie published her debut novel harkening back to the state she grew up in – Texas and her love for horses. A sweeping family saga spanning over 70 years, the book's main character was meant to play a secondary role until she began...

If you're curious what it might be like to self-publish your work, this is a segment you'll want to listen to.  Jensen is doing everything right – rapid release of three books in one series in one year (with another one coming in April), soaking up craft lessons from experts, being mentored by a seasoned indie author. She made the conscious decision to avoid the negativity of rejections from agent...

Hear how the idea for Kristy's novel originated from a ten-year old TV show, how the goal to write a novel came to her in a dream, and how her female protagonist refused the ending Kristy had planned for her and insisted on a different path.  We also discuss what it's like to work with a small press based in another country and how she manages to find time to write between a full-time job and stud...

We talk with Kate Allen (Fear of Flying, Ambiguous Ink Press, March 2021) and discuss how she balances her work as a lawyer with her writing career, how writing a novel and wanting to see it published sooner rather than later sent her on a journey that resulted in her starting her own publishing company, and how her best advice for new authors is be braver about social media, that it can be fun an...

A tale of two women whose lives intersect in the 1970's in Alaska, Dorothy's  book not only reflects her own experiences when she lived for years in a remote scientific community near the Arctic Circle but also the power and lasting legacy of female friendships. We also discuss how she found her small press through another writer's recommendation and how sometimes it's necessary to jettison intere...

Leslie and I discuss the difference between an author and a writer, how her experience writing TV sit-coms and personal essays was very different than writing a full-length novel, and how the idea for her realistic story came from the challenges she observed her forty-something friends grappling with as children left home, parents aged, and marriages underwent major transformations. Leslie A. Rasm...