Today we welcome Diane Barnes to the podcast. Diane lives in Massachusetts and spends a large part of the summer in the White Mountains in Maine in a camp without an internet connection or a stable cell signal. It’s where she gets her best writing done because there are no distractions.

Diane writes Women’s Fiction, and her books often focus on friendships between women and how female friendships have the power to help women overcome obstacles in their lives.

Diane fell in love with writing in second grade when she returned from recess one day to find large paper footprints leaving a trail through the classroom. Her teacher asked the class to write a story, and Diane had been writing ever since. She studied journalism in college and worked at a newspaper and magazine before settling into a career as a marketing and corporate communication writer.

Diane’s fourth novel, ALL WE COULD STILL HAVE, released November 7 by Lake Union. The book is about a couple that desperately wants children but struggles with infertility. The story started with a writing prompt that best-selling author Elizabeth Berg gave Diane during a four-day intensive writing workshop in Boston. When Diane read the scene she wrote based on the prompt, the attendees and Elizabeth laughed at the beginning and by the end they were in tears. At the time of the workshop, Diane was writing her debut. She finished that and two other novels before going back to the story she started in that workshop that would eventually become All We Could Still Have.

You can learn more about Diane and her novels on her website at www.dianembarnes.com or on Instagram and Twitter @DianeBarnes777.

Order your copy of All We Could Still Have at your favorite bookstore https://bookshop.org/a/90599/9781662511813 or you can lend a little bit of support to the production of this podcast by ordering it through this affiliate link with Amazon https://amzn.to/41Gxjg5

A little about today's host-

Kathleen Basi is a novelist, musical composer, and nature lover. Her debut novel, A Song for the Road, follows a musician on an unconventional road trip. Bestselling author Kerry Anne King writes, “In a novel filled with music, heartbreak, and surprising laughter, Basi takes us on a journey that encompasses both unimaginable loss and the powerful resilience of the human heart.”

Meaty, earnest, occasionally humorous, and ultimately uplifting, Kathleen’s fiction highlights the best within ourselves and each other. She writes monthly reflections on life, writing, and beauty in her newsletter. Subscribe at https://kathleenbasi.substack.com/.

Be sure to follow or subscribe to Author Express wherever you listen to podcasts and to follow us on Instagram @AuthorExpressPodcast

Learn more about our hosts, the guests we've had, and their books -

https://linktr.ee/AuthorExpressPodcast