I always knew I was going to write. As a young child, I was fascinated with how a book could transport you to a world where everything worked out in the end. I dreamed of being able to bring my love of storytelling to a wider audience. Writing is the lens through which I understand […]
By Mima Tipper When I began writing Kat’s Greek Summer, I had a clear view of basing the story loosely on summers I spent in Greece as a young teen, and that the book would be saturated with sun-soaked locales and colorful Greeks. What I didn’t know is that my main character Kat, a 14 […]
IF TOMORROW NEVER COMES Fate connects two people in life-changing ways in a deeply romantic and emotional novel about hope and second chances by the author of Would You Rather and The Roommate Pact. Uncertain of what tomorrow brings, Elliott Holland decides to live it up―on the eve of a stem cell transplant to treat her leukemia. It’s […]
By Meera Ekkanath Klein “Being a mother is the most important job in the world, but being a grandmother is the most fun!” (Anonymous) I have many fond memories of my granny, Muthi, as she was called. She was a born storyteller and accomplished raconteur. She took my sister and me everywhere, including the local […]
We’re delighted to feature this excerpt from Kate Woodworth’s LITTLE GREAT ISLAND! LITTLE GREAT ISLAND On Little Great Island, climate change is disrupting both life and love After offending the powerful pastor of a cult, Mari McGavin has to flee with her six-year-old son. With no money and no place else to go, she returns […]
Irma Venter, author of Red Tide, on Women Characters in Crime Novels What does a strong female character in a crime novel look like? This question has intrigued me since I was a teenager scouring the library for my next read. Often the female characters were one of two things – the (often passing) love […]
By Lynne Shaner I started writing what would become my debut novel more than ten years ago. The first draft was messy and awful and all over the place, in the way firsts drafts are (mine, anyway). I printed it out it and boxed it up and lugged it halfway across the country. I tucked […]
By Sweta Vikram We were at a dinner gathering the other night when a few people asked, “When are you writing your next novel?” I didn’t have an answer. These people knew that I started work on a new novel in summer of 2020. They had shown interest in the storyline. They wanted to know […]
By Lorraine Devon Wilke When I was in grade school, my class participated in a special pullout session to watch an interesting documentary about noted anthropologist Louis Leakey. I was mesmerized throughout, so when we were assigned to write an essay immediately afterwards, I jumped in, flush with enthusiasm. Imagine, then, the blow of getting […]
by Jayne Chard I started writing at about eight; I wrote all the junior school plays. When I was fourteen, I wrote my first “novel.” One of my friend’s Dad was a writer, and I always remember him saying, “If you want to be a writer, you have to write every day,” I guess I’ve […]
DEEP TIME For adventurous fiction lovers, this debut novel tells the story of a young geologist working with ancient rocks who finds herself in present mortal danger when Mount St. Helens erupts with catastrophic power. After an inspiring trip to the Grand Canyon, Lauren Brown falls in love with geology—so much so that she convinces […]
Fine, I’m a Terrible Person Fine, I’m a Terrible Person is a funny, heart wrenching adult mother daughter story. It begins when 73-year-old, worn out, former beauty, Aurora Hmans Feldenburg, a hapless, perpetually broke, eccentric, divorcee living in the wealthy enclave of Marin County in Northern California, is wakened by a phone call informing her […]
Melissa Payne is the bestselling author of six novels, including The Wild Road Home, A Light in the Forest and her latest, In the Beautiful Dark. After an early career raising money for nonprofit organizations, Melissa began dreaming about becoming a published author and wrote her first novel. Her stories feature small mountain towns with […]
In Ana Hebra Flaster‘s powerful debut memoir, Flaster chronicles her family’s refugee journey from a Cuban barrio to a New Hampshire mill town, capturing the resilience, love, and complex identity of immigrant life in the U.S. Featured on NPR and PBS, and a finalist for major literary prizes, Flaster’s memoir reveals how the strong-willed women in her family wove stories of their Cuban […]
The Life and Loves of an American Artist: An Interview with Marguerite Thorne By Paulette Kennedy, author of THE ARTIST OF BLACKBERRY GRANGE (Lake Union; May 1, 2025) The Artist of Blackberry Grange: A Novel For a young caregiver in the Ozarks, an old house holds haunting memories in a ghostly novel about family secrets, sacrifice, […]
By Andrea J. Stein, author of Typecast and Dear Eliza When babies are born, there are celebrations galore. Showers are thrown. Gifts are given. Visits are paid. In many ways, books are authors’ babies. They take hours and hours (truthfully, years!) of work to create and cultivate, and then they face a big world full […]
by Marilyn Simon Rothstein Getting published saves time. That’s because it’s no longer necessary to spend hours yearning to be published. Nine out of ten authors are “bestselling”. The rest are “award winning”. Almost every writer was once a lawyer. Smile at this remark, “I’m constantly lending your new book to friends. Did I mention […]
Why is Book Marketing So Damn Hard? I offer a marketing mastermind for writers, called 12 weeks to Book Launch Success. In this group program, I guide novelists and memoir writers to develop a successful launch plan for their book. (If this sounds interesting, more details at the end!) Before developing my program, I interviewed […]
Things I wish I’d known about book marketing: A few specific tips for the author who wants to sell books as well as write them! (1) When people ask me how I found my agent, I tell them about Publishers Marketplace https://www.publishersmarketplace.com/. This is an enormous database that lists (nearly) every book deal, as well […]
I was at a low. I’d just broken up with my literary agent after three years, and it felt as if my publishing dreams would never come true. I couldn’t sleep. I was cranky. When The Secret by Rhonda Byrne was published in 2006, I didn’t read it but at 2am one night the Netflix […]
Here’s why. You slump, shrink, curl down in your seat, never stand up straight. As if an arrow might pick you off. Not an arrow, a bullet. Not a bullet, a blow. Not a blow, words. Not words, looks. Here’s why. You’re a freak. Four inches in one year? Your father’s colleague says he keeps […]
He wanted you to have this. It was written with exaggerated clarity on a scrap of paper, as if the author was unsure of the reader’s grasp of English. The torn paper, rather than a proper card, another signal from the sender. It was signed Elaine, with a rounded, buxom capital E. On the padded […]
Elaine Walsh Barrington revs up her white BMW and reverses the car out of the double garage behind the house. “I really don’t mind getting a taxi to the station again,” Lorna, her younger sister, says from the passenger seat. “You didn’t have to leave your New Years Day open house like this.” The clenched […]
She’s a woman who discards anything which causes sorrow or blocks her path. A man she cares for does both, and she leaves him. She takes only what she really values, an old set of books, a few china plates of her mother’s, an abstract painting she’d found in Santa Fe, New Mexico. She abhors […]
This is an account of what it was like to be nine years old and on the receiving end of the bombing power of a well-armed enemy. Like millions in London we were evacuated at the start of the war. My father went to Harpenden with the insurance company he worked for, two days before […]
Q&A with Literary Agent ERIN NIUMATA Folio Literary Management, VP and Literary Agent Erin Niumata has been in publishing for over three decades. She started as an editorial assistant at Simon and Schuster in the Touchstone/Fireside division for several years; then moved over to Harper Collins as an editor, and then she went to Avalon […]
Three years ago, I was a freelance writer with an extremely long Word document chilling on my hard drive. Today, those 98,000 words mark my shift from aspiring writer to fiction author: The Lost Night is coming out from Crown. My novel is a thriller about a woman uncovering the dark truths surrounding her best […]
A few days ago I did an interview and one of the questions was did I think having an agent was crucial in this business. The answer for me was a huge, resounding yes. My agent is Carly Watters at P.S. Literary Agency, and I literally wouldn’t be where I am now without her patient […]
A Twenty-Five-Question Interview Published as a Five Part Series Part One Part Two | Hosted by MM Finck | | Anonymously Answered By Agented Authors* with Varying Publishing Career Durations and Successes from Debut to Bestselling and Represented by Multiple Literary Agencies of Varying Sizes | QUESTION ELEVEN Historically, how many story ideas do you […]
A Twenty-Five-Question Interview Published as a Five Part Series. Read Part One HERE | Hosted by MM Finck | | Anonymously Answered By Agented Authors* with Varying Publishing Career Durations and Successes from Debut to Bestselling and Represented by Multiple Literary Agencies of Varying Sizes | QUESTION SIX Did your first agented manuscript sell? If […]
Many of my writer friends have celebrated wins lately, and it’s gotten under my skin. Because they’re not. Celebrating, that is. Without exception, on learning of said wins I’ve barely enunciated the C in CONGRATS! and already they’re downplaying it. Dismissing it as insignificant, not even news at all, really. Drowning their victory in BUTS and JUSTS. My short story was […]
We are delighted to feature and excerpt from Never Date a Broke Dude: The Financial Freedom Playbook by Pattie Ehsaei! Never Date a Broke Dude: The Financial Freedom Playbook The definitive playbook for navigating love and money to secure your financial freedom forever—from licensed attorney, finance expert, and TikTok powerhouse Pattie Ehsaei. Never Date a […]
Leslie A. Rasmussen In my life, I’ve worked in various industries, from acting to writing television sitcoms to becoming a nutritional counselor. However, among all my career paths, the publishing industry has proven to be the most challenging for making a living. Most authors would agree that unless you’re fortunate enough to secure a substantial […]
We’re delighted to share this poem from THE MOTHER SELF by Talia Gutin! — A PROMISE May I open to your smile always, anywhere— May it press against my chest, carry me into delight And that indelible ache of love. Today, two small teeth encircled by tender gums. How will it look When you are […]
FORGED A thrilling and immersive tale of an impoverished woman turned con-artist by the critically acclaimed author of All the Ever Afters In the Gilded Age, a time of abject poverty and obscene wealth, a desperate and ambitious young woman strikes out for a new life in the rising industrial cities of America. Naive Fanny is […]
by Erin Clifford As I reflect on my journey—both personal and professional—I see how each chapter of my life led me not only to embrace wellness but to write about it. I always loved to write whether it was in journals as a teenager or research papers in high school. My passion for wellness didn’t […]
2024 will be the year of the woman leader! May 2024 saw the publication of my second book in the Arcana Oracle Series, High Priestess and Empress. I thought in 2024 that the stars were aligned perfectly for women leaders to be celebrated. My book series is based on the real-life Victorian women leaders, celebrity […]
By Linda Newbery I have several friends to thank for the publication of The One True Thing. Without them, the novel would still exist only as a cloud document and in my mind and those of its few readers, but three conversations in particular set it on its way and led to the formation of […]
By Rachel Callaghan A reader posted a review of my literary novel Under Water, complaining that the sex scenes in the novel had too many details. If I replied to reviews, I might say, “You found it toe-curlingly unsettling to read? Imagine having to write it!” And, anyway, the deets were really all suggested, not baldly laid […]
Finding Inspiration to Write About Trauma Someone once told me, “You don’t look like what you’ve been through.” Thank goodness for that, because if I did, this middle-aged woman might frighten small children. She meant it as a compliment, though, because today I’m a reasonably well-adjusted person. But let me tell you—getting here didn’t come […]
Recent Comments