Beverly Jenkins is best-selling, award-winning, and still having fun with all she does—in other words, all the things we writers aspire to when we sit down at the desk. But when she first got started, she “didn’t have a clue”—and that might have freed her to do exactly what she wanted to do.

We talk keeping history accurate but still making it entertaining, the joy of placing characters in a particular moment in time, bookshelf placement (“African American Literature”? “Men’s Health”?) and the pleasures of changing up your process for every new book.

Am Reading

Beverly: Shadows in Death by J.D. Robb

Battle Ground by Jim Butcher

Black Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse

The Blood Heir by Ilona Andrews “If I could only have one author for the whole rest of my life it would be Ilona Andrews.”

Sarina:

My Last Duchess by Eloisa James

Dark Witch by Nora Roberts

KJ: Wandering in Strange Lands by Morgan Jerkins

Wild Rain by Beverly Jenkins

Beverly thought KJ definitely needed to watch the Love Between the Cover documentary

KJ’s Brain Fart: While J.D. Robb is and always will be the great Nora Roberts, I have been enjoying the Writers, Ink podcast with J. Thorn and J.D. Barker lately. Barker writes thrillers, most recently with James Patterson.

Our guest today LOVES TWITTER. Find her there in “Romancelandia” at authorMsBev

And she hangs out on no less than three Facebook pages!

But somehow she’s still getting her work done. #jealous.

Hey readers! We can’t stop talking about our new sponsor The Great Courses. While Jess has been a fan for literally years, the rest of the #AmWriting crew are working to get caught up on all the great goodness they have to offer. You can find out more about them at https://www.thegreatcoursesplus.com/amwriting.

And - as we move into 2021 working towards achieving new goals: if you find yourself asking ‘Is this the year I launch my own book coaching business?’, you know we cannot recommend Author Accelerator enough! Their book coaching course is everything you need to get started. Find out more at bookcoaches.com/amwriting.

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