by Mary Flynn As a former full-time writer for Hallmark Cards, I have a long-standing affinity for the brand that has carried over to the popular Hallmark Channel. Even so, I couldn’t help taking a tongue-in-cheek look at this TV programming giant. When You Care Enough It was just about a hundred years ago that […]
Indiana authorsWriting Boys by Barbara Shoup and Kat Higgs-Coulthard and Kat Higgs-Coulthard are longtime friends who met through their involvement in The Indiana Writers’ Center. Each has been honored by the 2012 Eugene and Marilyn Glick Foundation, with Shoup receiving the 2012 Regional Indiana Author Award and Higgs-Coulthard honored on the short-list for the 2024 Indiana […]
When five-year-old Ben’s family decided to become a registered foster home, they anticipated a challenging yet fulfilling journey. What they didn’t expect was the criticism that followed, with many asserting that the Snyder children would face significant risks. The experience, however, proved these assumptions couldn’t have been further from the truth. Beyond Blood (Ballast Books; releasing […]
When five-year-old Ben’s family decided to become a registered foster home, they anticipated a challenging yet fulfilling journey. What they didn’t expect was the criticism that followed, with many asserting that the Snyder children would face significant risks. The experience, however, proved these assumptions couldn’t have been further from the truth. Beyond Blood (Ballast Books; releasing […]
Authors Interviewing Characters: Jody Holford ALL THE OTHER ME Isabelle Duprees is one of Forbes’ most powerful self-made women and has built a reputation as one of New York’s savviest investors and sharpest advisors. With a penthouse overlooking Central Park, an open invitation to any event she wishes to attend, and a weekly date with […]
By Margot Machol Bisnow Author of Raising an Entrepreneur: How to Help Your Children Achieve Their Dreams – 99 Stories from Families Who Did I never thought I would write a book. I’ve always done a lot of writing – and words have always been important to me – but for most of my career, which dealt with international development, […]
By Susan Specht Oram I wanted to write a novel about a strong female protagonist who rescues boaters, and I set aside early efforts. But then one evening, I was visiting my son’s family in San Francisco, and they had gone upstairs to bed, taking my magical newborn granddaughter with them. I sat at the […]
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 […]
Indiana authorsWriting Boys by Barbara Shoup and Kat Higgs-Coulthard and Kat Higgs-Coulthard are longtime friends who met through their involvement in The Indiana Writers’ Center. Each has been honored by the 2012 Eugene and Marilyn Glick Foundation, with Shoup receiving the 2012 Regional Indiana Author Award and Higgs-Coulthard honored on the short-list for the 2024 Indiana […]
By Christina Hamlett Over the course of 25 years, friends who broke bread at our dining room table never failed to suggest that the two of us should turn our culinary capers into a cookbook. In 2017, I took them up on the challenge and published Easy Eats and Frugal Feasts—a collection of fun recipes, […]
The Blog Tour Demystified Before I launched my debut, I understood blog tours were a thing, and…very little else about them. Two tours later, I’m a fan of this often-misunderstood marketing tool—with a few tips and caveats. Here’s a breakdown: What is it, exactly? You provide free copies of your book in exchange for a series of […]
by Josje Weusten ‘We shouldn’t be reading this!’ the student sitting across from me on the first row interjects before I have even properly started my introduction. The lecture I’m giving is part of an undergraduate course on the European history of the novel. Having ironed out the main kinks years ago, I am used […]
By Lee Kelly and Jennifer Thorne One of the biggest drawbacks of the writing life for most authors is that it’s by and large a lonely profession. Unless you count conversations with fictional people, most of an author’s career is spent alone in front of a computer . . . which is perhaps why many […]
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” […]
We’re delighted to feature this character interview by J.T. Ellison! A VERY BAD THING From New York Times bestselling author J.T. Ellison comes a taut thriller about one author at the pinnacle of her career, whose past threatens to destroy everything she has―and everyone she knows. A great writer knows when to deliver a juicy plot twist. […]
Dead Egyptians “Dead Egyptians takes the reader on a vast, rollicking ride through history, reincarnation, romance and more… ” –Susan Martell Huebner, author She Thought the Door Was Locked In Egypt, all things are possible. So discovers Albion Stanley, a recent Cambridge graduate and brilliant linguist, newly arrived in Cairo in 1902. Albion sees the unseen, including […]
The Last Princess: Daughter of the House of Dragons. Young and beautiful Gytha Godwinson is the envy of England when her father Harold seizes the country’s crown in early 1066. But soon, treachery tears her house apart, and triumph turns to terror. An evil star appears, heralding the end of an era and a new […]
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 […]
Suspense Author Kimberley Troutte Tells All Where Her Story Ideas Come From I’ve been doing this writing gig since the start of this millennium. One of my favorite things is talking to readers. The top two questions I am consistently asked are—“Where do you get your ideas for your books?”—and with my fulltime day job, […]
“Don’t speak. Just listen. Grab the kids and an overnight bag. Be ready in ten minutes. My husband was calling from his office at the American Embassy. No time to ask questions. Not safe to ask.” Those are the first words I wrote, a memory seared into my brain. I had never intended to write […]
As a first-time author, I relished the opportunity to write creatively and explore the ins and outs of the publishing community. I’ve learned a great deal along the way that goes well beyond simply writing the book. My inspiration to write about traveling the world for business came from my husband, though it was my […]
By Angela Greenman In frustration I push my chair away from the computer and march from the room. I’ve been struggling with my protagonist’s relationship with her adopted daughter in the sequel to my debut thriller, The Child Riddler. The protagonist, Zoe, is a badass spy/assassin. She’s a ruthless killer who acts and speaks without […]
Adventures on Land and Sea: Searching for Culinary Pleasures in Provence and along the Cote d’Azur (Savoring the Olde Ways Series, Book 4) Fans of Peter Mayle and Janine Marsh will enjoy this exploration of medieval villages, cultures, and recipes of France’s Provence. This travelogue is Book 4 in the author’s best-selling series, which has […]
By Michelle Cameron World building in historical fiction (or, frankly, any other kind) requires the writer to pay a great deal of attention to what life was like during whatever period they’re writing about. Of course, it goes without saying that substantial research helps the writer to understand how people dressed, what they ate, how […]
By Carol Van Den Hende Writing has a reputation for being a solitary pursuit, so it surprised me what a community it creates! You see, I picked up writing again in my adult life for myself, as a place of solace during a difficult time. I wasn’t pursuing publication for any external goals. What I […]
Quincy Kadin is a high school student in Los Angeles, a mental health advocate, and the author of Frankie’s Fishy Feelings, a children’s book. We are delighted to feature her on our site1 Growing up, I had a lot of anxiety. At times, it was so bad that I struggled to leave my house. My […]
By Imogen Matthews Readers of my historical fiction books will know that I have a passion for discovering stories about the Dutch who lived under brutal German occupation during World War 2. Over the past decade I have uncovered stories about a woodland hideout for Jews, the astonishing bravery of young boy who bravely smuggled […]
By Nan Reinhardt No, I’m not talking politics, I’m talking literally from the left side. That’s how I see life because I’m a lefty. And not just left-handed, but extremely left-handed. Don’t ask me to do much of anything with my right—it simply ain’t gonna happen. It’s not always easy being a lefty in a right-handed […]
Recent Comments