Our guest this week is Linda Sachse (Inheriting the Shackelford Ranch, indie published, February 2024). Linda, who switched from romance to women’s literature with this book, discusses the difference between the two and how she went about learning the tropes of this new genre. We explore the getaway writing retreats she creates with her best writing buddy, why she decided to self-publish, and her best ideas for expanding your word count without filling your novel up with fluff.

Linda Sachse is an author of Women’s Fiction with a hint of romance. She loves to write a book that you can relax by the fire with or out by the pool, transporting you to a place or two you’d like to visit. She resides in Texas, where her stories begin with her husband, granddaughter, her Great Dane Lilly, and her two cats, Sophia and Pickles.

To learn more about Linda, click here.

 This week’s guest is L. L. Kirchner (Florida Girls, indie published, May 2024). We discuss taking fascinating historical facts and weaving them into a fictionalized narrative, deciding what to leave out and what to highlight, and how getting media attention can often come through developing tangential talks related to your novel’s time period or themes. (in her case, the Florida Mafia and swimsuit models). Then L.L. describes the joys and drawbacks of being a pantser and the three pieces of advice she’d offer to newer writers.

L.L. Kirchner is an award-winning screenwriter, author of two memoirs, and the historical thriller series, The Queenpin Chronicles. She is currently at work on her next book, a mystery set in Pittsburgh. If you’ve read her work it won’t surprise you to learn she was once simultaneously the bridal editor for a society rag, dating columnist for an alt-newsweekly, and religion editor for an LGBTQ+ paper. She currently lives in Florida with her favorite husband and their best boy Hartley. You can get the prequel to The Queenpin Chronicles FREE at her website. 

To learn more, click here.

This week our guest is Lisa Fellinger (The Serendipity of Catastrophe, indie published, March 2024). Lisa’s educational background in mental health counseling has proved handy as she moved in her current work as a book coach, developmental editor, and debut novelist, since digging deeper into what makes a character tick is one of the biggest problems she sees in her client’s manuscripts. We discuss how her novel began as a 2015 NaNoWriMo project, how an editor has to learn to take off her “critique” hat when drafting their first draft, and how she credits the WFWA community with making her a stronger writer.

Lisa Fellinger writes contemporary women's fiction with lovably flawed, relatable characters. When she's not writing her own stories, she's helping others achieve their writing dreams as a book coach and developmental editor. She lives in Buffalo, New York with her husband, son, and fur babies.

To learn more about Lisa, click here.

Our podcast guest this week is Lucille Guarino (Elizabeth’s Mountain, Black Rose Press, March 2024). We discuss how this book, which came to her in a dream, launched her second career as a writer, how she teamed up with her small publisher to publicize it, and how one of her most successful strategies was entering writing contests, bringing not only recognition but also outside validation. We cover how to get book reviews, how social media ads, giveaways, and in-person events are among her favorite marketing approaches, and end the interview with the quirky habit she can’t seem to break.

Lucille's first novel, Like Wine, was a tribute to her mother, and getting it into print before she passed was her goal. She considers Elizabeth's Mountain, winner of the Literary Titan Gold Book Award and Readers' Favorite Award, to be her true debut novel. Elizabeth's Mountain was also a finalist in the 2024 American Writing Award contest for the elite Hawthorne Prize.

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Lucille loves stories that lift her up and gratify her. An avid reader of most genres, the only thing Lucille likes more than delving and escaping into a good book is visiting noteworthy locations. Her most recent escapade road trips took her to Asheville, NC, Charleston, SC, and the Grand Canyon. And an international trip of a lifetime – Venice, Rome, and the Amalfi Coast. She’s lived most of her life in northern New Jersey and now lives in South Carolina with her husband, and close to her two daughters and grandchildren. 

To learn more about Lucille, click here.

 This week our guest is Carolyn McBride (The Cicada Spring: A Potomac Shores Novel, indie published, April 2024). Hear how her parents’ dream house finally became reality—in the pages of Carolyn’s debut novel. We discuss the argument in favor of getting an MFA in Creative Writing, how publishing on her own does not necessarily mean not ever pursuing a traditional deal, how personal appearances have proved to be her best sales tool, and how her ritual of reading a chapter from a craft book before starting her writing time helps to keep her immersed in the world of story.

Carolyn McBride's debut novel in women's fiction, The Cicada Spring, is the first in her coming-of-middle-age series set on the shores of the Potomac River. It was recently awarded a 2025 Silver Award for Best Audiobook - Fiction from the Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA) Book Awards. All of her novels feature women at the helm of their own boats and ultimately their own lives, reviving dreams, rewriting their stories, and discovering the strength that lies within. A former editor and columnist for National Geographic Traveler, she is a graduate of the College of William and Mary and holds an MFA in fiction writing from Lindenwood University. Along with her husband and pets, she divides her time between homes on Virginia's Occoquan River and South Florida's Intracoastal Waterway.

To learn more about Carolyn, click here.

Our guest this week is Susan Wadds (What the Living Do, Regal House Publishing, March 2024). Susan describes her biggest writing challenge as taking all the disparate pieces of her story and organizing/structuring them into a coherent whole and shares the various techniques she’s tried (including an atelier in France!). Later we delve into how cultivating dream agents can pay off and the one thing that’s most surprised her about the audience for her debut.

Resources mentioned in this interview: Amherst Writers & Artists

Winner of the 2024 Canadian Book Club Award for her debut novel and the 2016 Writer's Union of Canada's Prose Contest, Susan Wadds' work has appeared in various publications, including carteblance, The Blood Pudding, Room, and Waterwheel Review. A graduate of the Humber School for Writers and a proud member of The Writers Union of Canada and The Canadian Authors Association, Susan is a certified Amherst Writers and Artists (AWA) workshop facilitator. She grew up in Toronto, Montreal, and London Ontario, and has lived in British Columbia, Oregon, India, France, and Italy. She's sort of settled down and currently lives on a quiet river in traditional Anishinaabe territory with an odd assortment of human and cats.

To learn more about Susan, click here.

This week we welcome Jann Everard (Blue Runaways, Stonehewer Books, March 2024) to the podcast. In a switch-up to our regular fare of novelists, Jann’s women’s fiction debut is a collection of twelve short stories instead and we spend time talking about how one goes about first picking the selections (including looking at themes and cohesion), then ordering them for flow and pace, and finally the challenge of getting a collection published in today’s market. If you’ve ever wondered about writing short fiction, this episode will give you a glimpse behind the scenes of an alternative marketplace for your creative ideas.

Jann Everard is a Canadian author who began writing later in life and published her first work at age 45 in Canada’s national newspaper The Globe and Mail. She went on to become an award-winning writer whose stories have been published in Canada, the United States, Australia, New Zealand, and Iceland. Born in Halifax, Canada, Jann settled in Toronto, where she worked in health administration and raised two sons. A life-long traveler and outdoorswoman, she now makes her home on British Columbia’s Vancouver Island, hiking, kayaking, writing, and being inspired by nature. Blue Runaways is a Next Generation Indie Book Award Finalist and received an Honourary Mention from the Sunshine Coast Writers and Editors Society Book Awards for British Columbia Authors.

To learn more about Jann, click here.

Our guest this week is Melissa Bacon (Through Her Lens, Atmosphere Press, April 2024). What if you aren’t setting out to build a career as an author but instead have one fascinating book you’re dying to write? Where most of the writers on the pod hope to write more books, Melissa, a fine art photographer and statistician, took 10 years to research and write her historical novel set in Britain during WWII, and isn’t all that sure she wants to do it again. And that’s okay in our book. Meanwhile, she loves the feeling of holding a book with her byline in her hands and is excited about bringing this untold story of women analysts and the contribution they made to the Allied victory to the world.

Melissa Clark Bacon was raised and stayed in Little Rock, Arkansas. She writes stories and makes photographs using historic and alternative printing processes. Her short story, The Handkerchief, where her character Millie first appears, won Best in Show Adult Fiction Short Story at the Grand Prairie Festival of the Arts. Her current creative work focuses on revealing unnoticed women from the past through captivating stories and photographs that aspire to elevate their contributions and offer them up as role models to women today. 

To learn more about Melissa, click here.

This week we welcome Gail Priest to the podcast (Soul Dancing, Red Adept Publishing, May 2024) Gail comes out of a theatre background and her previous work included plays so the first thing she writes is all the dialogue, then goes back and adds in scene, description, action, and all the rest of the connecting tissue. Her debut is a tale of an unusual love triangle with more than a hint of magic realism and she picked a small press primarily based on its offering of a developmental edit. We discuss her best tips for finding small presses (including WFWA resources) and why seeking agent representation may not be the answer for everyone.

Gail Priest has a passion for women’s fiction. Her degrees and work in theatre and counseling psychology inspire her stories about healing from family trauma and secrets. A dash of romance and her love of second chances are always in the mix. Her most recent novel, Soul Dancing, was selected as 2024 Book of the Year by the American Writing Awards. Her other award-winning books include The Annie Crow Knoll Trilogy, A Collingwood Christmas, and East Shore Shorts. Gail lives in New Jersey with her husband and their Havanese dog, Annie. When she's not writing or teaching, Gail can be found reading or looking for birds and sea glass along the beaches and bays of the East Coast.

To learn more about Gail, click here.

 A resource mentioned during this interview: Suzy Approved Book Tours

 My guest this week is Jayna Sheats (Hanna’s Ascent, Bedazzled Ink Publishing, June 2023). Growing up a poor boy in rural Colorado, Jayna went on to receive a Ph.D. in Chemistry from Stanford, founded 3 companies, and holds several patents, but her biggest achievement was embracing her core identity as a trans woman 20 years ago and writing a literary novel that explores the trauma and triumphs which lay at the heart of that experience. After 200,000 revisions, 5 book coaches, and 203 submissions, the manuscript found its home at Bedazzled. We discuss her journey as well as whether it helps or hinders your novel to have its subject matter at the epicenter of the cultural and political zeitgeist.

Jayna Sheats grew up on a Colorado ranch without electricity, neighbors, or schools, but obtained a ham radio license when she was seven. After language and psychology studies in Colorado and Germany and a PhD in chemistry from Stanford University, she became a researcher and entrepreneur, publishing 60 scientific articles and book chapters, and started three companies. As creator of Hewlett-Packard's e-Inclusion program she worked with Dr. Muhammad Yunus in Bangladesh on telecenters for the poor. Today she lives with her children in northern California, hikes frequently in the redwoods, and writes novels involving social justice and triumph over trauma.

To learn more about Jayna, click here.