A vibrant, honest, and unique travel memoir for readers who think they’re too old to “eat, pray, love,” My Marriage Sabbatical captures marital therapist Leah Fisher’s journey to maintain her marriage without forfeiting her own independence. She wants to travel the world; he wants to keep working. At sixty, Leah Fisher is ready to Love, Honor, and […]
By Dona Masi Human history is filled with stories about encounters with strange beings from other planets. In these stories, human beings are confronted by the unknown in their experiences with out-of-the-world creatures, and it changes their lives forever. At least this is true according to the legends of unidentified flying objects and alien abductions, […]
By Lisa Montanaro My father doesn’t really read. Well, okay, he reads boating magazines and car manuals, but not books. Certainly not novels. And yet, when I received the publishing deal for my debut novel, he called, and after congratulating me, said, “So, when am I going to read this manuscript?” “You want to read […]
In the dim crease of dawn, Galway’s docks clatter with stevedores, sailors, pimps, dogs. The air, laced with coal dust and smoke, reeks of rotting fish. Mary Agnes clutches her granddad’s arm as they weave through crowds swarming the wharfside, the sky leaden, threatening rain. Beyond a tangle of masts and battered hulls, a constant […]
By Kate MacIntosh Readers often ask how an author finds the inspiration for a novel. And writers love to chat about their muse, or the universe, gifting them a book concept wrapped up in a sparkling package ready to go. The truth is less romantic. Ideas for books come in pieces, like furniture you put […]
How one author with a wildly different book had to do it herself. Welp! Things don’t often happen as one thinks they should. As I penned (for the last twenty-plus years) what I once believed to be the next great American novel, I never considered that getting my story into the hands of readers would […]
I’ve been plagued by imposter syndrome most of my life. I convinced myself I was “less than” — not educated enough, not worldly enough. You get the idea. I never recognized or named this warped sense of self until I wrote my first book. The process of writing became a journey to self-awareness. My love […]
By Christina Hamlett As we approach another new year, thoughts often turn to dusting off pitch letters or composing fresh ones to agents and publishers. How can you make yours stand out from the competition and garner a green light to submit your work? Consider the following tips. PRELIMINARIES Is your book actually finished? When […]
For forty years, I kept hearing, “You should write a book.” Over 80% of people want to write a book, while only 3% actually finish a novel. At first, I thought, Why me? Then, I looked in the mirror and thought, Why not? I wasn’t getting any younger. So, one day, I finally began writing. […]
By Barbara Josselsohn A few short months ago, I published my eighth novel, THE FORGOTTEN ITALIAN RESTAURANT, the third in my World War 2 series. It’s about two “lost” souls – Callie, a 33-year-old woman dealing with present-day grief, and Emilia, a ninety-three year old woman who has yet to come to terms with bitter […]
Bits of String too Small to Save character interview Ruby Peru’s Bits of String too Small to Save catalogues the adventures of ten-year-old ElizabethAnn and Grandma along with a cast of wacky characters bent on saving the forested dystopia of Bumblegreen from certain demise. This rollicking adventure-quest is a coming of age story for two […]
Though I’m known as a writer of adult psychological thrillers and psychological horror books, My UnderSlumberBumbleBeast actually predates the publication of my debut novel, Baby Teeth. I’d wanted to give the child character of that novel, Hanna, a favorite book—something her dad would read with her—and after considering copyright issues it became obvious that I […]
UNTETHERED Sometimes family is found in the most unlikely of places . . . In the small college town of Troy, Alabama, amidst the backdrop of 1967, Katia Daniels lives a life steeped in responsibility. At the Pike County Group Home for Negro Boys, she pours her heart into nurturing the young lives under her […]
Waiting for a Party What is it like to be married for thirty years but experience your first orgasm only after being widowed in your sixties? How does an older woman change once she discovers her sexuality? Could she have prevented the death of her husband? Why did she wait for an hour before calling […]
DEVIL’S DEFENSE A gripping courtroom drama that explores the struggle between morality vs. professional obligation, Devil’s Defense will appeal to fans of female-lead courtroom dramas like The Good Wife. Jessica Fischer wants nothing more than to build her law practice in small-town Ashton, Georgia. She’s well on her way when the local town hero, football coach Frank “Tripp” […]
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 […]
Jen Marie Wiggins is the author of The Good Bride, a twisty domestic suspense novel inspired by the coastal town of Mexico Beach, Florida which was nearly decimated by Hurricane Michael in 2018. About the book: The Wedding of the Year turns disastrous in this twisty family drama full of lies and betrayals, perfect for fans […]
For fans of stranger than truth stories, Sandy Schnakenburg is uncovering rattling and unprecedented revelations in this powerful memoir of love, secrets, and survival. When Lee Metoyer is hired to be the new housekeeper, she has no idea that she’s about to become the anchor to a family in an abusive patriarch’s home, setting a […]
By Courtney Kocak Hannah Sward’s Strip is a memoir about her tumultuous journey from a fractured childhood to her foray into sex work, addiction, and eventual recovery—and yes, there’s a commune. It begins, “My mom left when I was two.” This abandonment establishes the yearning at the heart of Strip. The story unfolds chronologically, a […]
The day after Thanksgiving I had an argument with my husband. It was his first year as an attorney for a Silicon Valley law firm and I thought he didn’t have time to dance in The Nutcracker anymore. It wasn’t just the law firm hours, I insisted. It was also the fact that we had […]
“What is masturbation?” I asked my mother. I was 8 years old, sitting in the back of our car, on the way out for our regular Saturday morning session of knocking on people’s doors to tell them about Jehovah, our god. I’d been leafing through the most recent edition of The Watchtower magazine, published by […]
by Rosa Kwon Easton White Mulberry is inspired by the life of my Korean grandmother, a young woman coming of age in 1930s Japan-occupied Korea. The story follows the journey of Miyoung, an eleven-year-old girl who has dreams too big for her poor, farming village outside Pyongyang – to become a teacher and avoid an […]
On April 13, 1975, the sky above Beirut erupted with bombs and machine gun fire, marking the beginning of the Lebanese civil war. Within weeks, the city divided into two warring camps, a division that would last for fifteen long years. I was twelve. My life changed forever. A year into the war, Beirut was […]
By Alice Rothchild In 2005, in the midst of two years of severe back pain and an arduous 18-month recovery from a spinal fusion, I received the suggestion from a friend and former editor to write a book on health and human rights in Israel/Palestine. I had been co-leading delegations to the region, providing care […]
Empowered Heroines: Strong Women that go Beyond Stereotypes in Fantasy Literature Fantasy literature has long been a realm of imagination where the impossible becomes reality, and the boundaries of the human experience are stretched beyond the mundane. Among the most captivating elements of this genre are its characters, particularly strong female protagonists who defy stereotypes, […]
by Katy Motiey I have been journal writing ever since I was ten years old, when we left Iran during the 1979 Iranian Revolution. I have a full box of journals buried in the closet. I have often wondered why I write down my thoughts the way I do. I write them down in no […]
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