Hear us Roar

This week's guest is Kathy Maresca (Porch Music, Touch Point Press, October 2022) In her debut novel, set in 1950's Gainesville Florida, Kathy utilized stories from her Seminole family history to tap into a story of racial inequities, Southern culture, country music, and religious hypocrisy. Her research included not only books and museums, but also her own memories of working at Six Gun Territory, a local theme park, and absorbing the rhythm of Native American dances. When it came to marketing, her most effective tool turned out to be contests, where she used her awards to publicize her book. Her least effective? A blog tour which failed to correctly target her ideal reader.

A native Floridian, Kathy Maresca grew up with a grandmother of Seminole heritage. Kathy served in the Air Force, working at the Air Force Academy Cadet Chapel and then in special operations at Hurlburt Field, Florida. She edited for the University of Florida and taught English, journalism, and drama. While she was teaching, Kathy became ill with trigeminal neuralgia. She then earned a master's degree, became credentialed as a rehabilitation counselor, and served as the Director of Patient Services for the Trigeminal Neurgalgia Association.

Kathy recently finished her second novel, Sky Kiss, and is working on a prequel to Porch Music. She has been a Guardian ad Litem and has taught classes for a prison fellowship ministry. Kathy lives in North Carolina with her husband, Keith. They enjoy traveling and spending time with their toy fox terriers.

To learn more about Kathy, click here.

Our guest this week is Georgia Day (Of Sand and Bone, Rhapsody Press, November 2022). Hear how a recurring nightmare, complete with a haunting, portentous image, led Georgia to the story that would eventually morph into her speculative fiction novel. Set in a unique world of undulating sand and daily life-and-death struggles, her two female protagonists set out on a journey and Georgia went on her own journey as well, creating a world where everything from the environment to the origin stories and myths to the animals that share the space had to come from her own imagination. Her reading from this lyrical yet unsettling dystopia half-way through the interview will enchant you as will her future goal of growing Rhapsody Press as a joint co-op venture with her father, a fellow writer.

Georgia Day holds a B.A. in Literary Studies from the University of Texas at Dallas and has dreamed of being a writer her entire life. She is an avid reader, movie buff, and travel enthusiast. Her first novel, Of Sand and Bone, was named a 2023 National Indie Excellence Awards Finalist in the category of Literary Fiction. She lives in the United States.

To learn more about Georgia, click here.

This week's guest is Amy Watson (Closer to Okay, Alcove Press, October 2022). Amy and I discuss clinical depression (she and her husband both live with this) and how her goal in writing her debut was to give voice to this little-understood condition and ways to cope with it. Listen for the serendipitous path that led Amy to her agent and eventually to her publisher, how her biggest marketing success came from inclusion on a book box site she didn't even solicit, and how gratifying it's been to hear from readers about both her book's rawness and its authenticity.

Amy Watson is a native of Little Rock, Arkansas. A wife, a mother to two boys, and a full-time office manager. In her spare time, she enjoys reading, baking, knitting, and watching football. Closer to Okay is her first novel.

To learn more about Amy, click here.

Our guest this week is Linda Moore (Attribution, She Writes Press, October 2022). You'll smile at Linda's analogy of how introducing your book to your audience is a lot like offering them chocolate chip cookies and about how men are still getting it wrong in terms of the harassment present in academia. And if you're interested in marketing to book clubs, you'll enjoy our lengthy discussion about how Linda approached this often-neglected marketing opportunity, eventually guesting at over seventy clubs in the last 16 months, both locally and via Zoom appearances.

A recovering gallery owner, traveler and writer, Linda Moore uses her experiences in her writing. After studying and earning degrees at the University of California, Stanford and University of Washington (whew!), she spent time as a hospital administrator until she turned her love of art into a business and opened an art gallery. Drawing upon a year studying at Complutense University of Madrid in Spain, she focused the gallery's art on contemporary Hispanic art, especially from the southern cone of South America (Argentina, Uruguay, Chile). She continued traveling after she closed the gallery and has been to all seven continents multiple times and has visited over 100 countries. She lives with her husband in San Diego and takes refuge when she can in beautiful Kauai where they have a cottage.

To learn more about Linda, click here.

This week's guest author is Karen Heenan (Coming Apart, indie published, October 2022). Our discussion ranges from what happens when the characters in your 1930's stand-alone historical novel have more to say (your book turns into a trilogy), what to do when as agent asks you to rewrite your novel in another author's voice (you part ways) to the unexpected and fascinating tidbits you learn when diving into research (ever heard of 'bootleg coal-mining?'). We end with a discussion of indie vs. trad publishing where Karen maintains agents are no longer the gatekeepers; readers are. And all they care about is whether your book is any good.

As an only child, Karen Heenan learned young that boredom was the ultimate enemy. Since discovering books, she is never without one in her hand and several more in her head. Karen lives in Lansdowne, PA, just outside Philadelphia, where she grows much of her own food and makes her own clothes. She is accompanied on her quest for self-sufficiency by a very patient husband and an ever-changing number of cats. One constant: she is always writing her next book.

To learn more about Karen, click here.

The podcast this week features Wendy Adair (The Broken Hallelujah, indie published, October 2022). Once Wendy had her core idea, snippets of facts as well as sources seemed to appear serendipitously, including the old trunk of a loved one. And we delve into genre – how she set out to write a women's fiction novel that morphed into another often overlooked genre as well, what it was like to discover a new readership to market to, and the freedom and creativity she's found in publishing her own work. And if you've been on the fence about audiobooks, her experience with that medium may help you decide to take the plunge.

Wendy Adair is a former public relations professional who worked in academia and upon retirement, became a published author. Her debut women's fiction novel received the 2023 IPPY Bronze Medal for Wartime Fiction and she was a finalist for both the 2023 International Book Award and the Page Turner Award. She is currently at work on a trilogy of cozy mysteries set in a college town featuring a multi-generational family of women amateur sleuths.

To learn more about Wendy, click here.

This week our guest is Gloria Mattioni (California Sister, Atmosphere Press, September 2022). Gloria, originally born in Italy, wrote six previous books before penning her women's fiction debut, a story loosely resembling a traumatic incident in her own life. The memoir form proved too painful to write and a screenplay hid the interiority needed to understand the sisters, but a dual POV novel proved to be the perfect structure for showing the emotional journey of the characters. Gloria crowd-sourced 40 hand-picked creatives for feedback and once she finished the book, was clear and specific about the time frame, the cost, and the support she needed from a publisher. And it paid off – she's won 11 of the 12 writing competitions she's entered.

Gloria Mattioni is the author of the multi-award-winning novel California Sister and an award-winning feature writer contributing to mainstream publication around the world. She also published the narrative non-fiction Reckless - The Outrageous Lives of Nine Kick-Ass Women, Dakota Warrior-The Story of James R. Weddell, and four previous books in Italy. She's been, among other things, an investigative reporter, human rights activist, animal rescuer and magazine editor. She was born in Milan, Italy, but moved to Los Angeles in 1992. She still lives in California with her husband and part-time live-in granddaughter, conjures six impossible things every morning before breakfast, and travels much.

To learn more about Gloria, click here.

Our podcast guest this week is Nancy Yeager (When We Were Friends, Red Adept, October 2022). This was Nancy's debut women's fiction although during the time she worked on it with both a book coach and a developmental editor, she wrote and released six historical romances and six contemporary romances. This novel (one inspiration was a Steve Miller song) was complicated by not only two POV's but also two timelines, one of which unspooled backwards. But her biggest challenge was the scramble at release time – due to a scheduling snafu, her launch window was only six weeks long and involved not only the standard marketing steps but also the task of recruiting a different street team for this new genre. Luckily, Nancy's a quick study and she pulled it off.

Award-winning author Nancy Yeager writes commercial fiction, historical romance, and contemporary romantic suspense. When she's not writing, she's often pursuing fitness goals like completing 90-day fitness challenges and aspiring to achieve the perfect crow pose. She also spends her time drinking too much coffee, not enough red wine, and just the right amount of bourbon. She lives in Maryland with her husband and some very spoiled rescue cats. WHEN WE WERE FRIENDS is Nancy's first book of women's fiction.

To learn more about Nancy, click here.

This week's podcast guest is Anastasia Zadeik (Blurred Fates, She Writes Press, August 2022). Her novel, which won the prestigious 2022 Sarton Award for Contemporary Fiction, examines the role memory—whether suppressed, purposely hidden, or misremembered—plays in a person's life and how one of the worst days of her life gave her the insight to tell the story. We talk about how she found the perfect home with a hybrid press, embracing Facebook ads (she actually enjoys the creativity behind them) and what criteria she used to decide on which contests to enter. And don't miss our discussion of blending genres – her readers tell her she's written a psychological suspense when all along she thought it was women's fiction.

Anastasia Zadeik is a writer, editor, and frequent performer of narrative nonfiction in a hushed bar. She serves as the Director of Communications for the San Diego Writers Festival, as a writing and performance coach for the literary nonprofit So Say We All, and as a board member for the International Memoir Writers Association. Her debut novel, Blurred Fates, won both the 2023 Sarton Award and the 2023 National Indie Excellence Award for Contemporary Fiction. Her second novel, The Other Side of Nothing, will be released in May 2024.

When she isn't reading or writing, you can find her hiking, practicing yoga, or hanging out with her husband, Tom, and their empty-nest rescue dog, Charlie.

To learn more about Anastasia, click here.

Our guest this week is Suzanne Moyers ('Til All These Things Be Done., She Writes Press, September 2022). We discuss her historical fiction debut, loosely based on her grandmother's life story and how sometimes research isn't onerous but fascinating when you find a fact in the past that provides context to a plot point or an old photo that sparks inspiration for the world-building necessary to bring a bygone era to life. Suzanne's rich trove of research led to a series of fascinating blogs and Facebook posts that's resulted in thousands of views, shares, and bestseller status and her continuing foray into both Amazon and Facebook targeted ads led to her selling out her first print run two months after her book's release. Now her interest in both metal detecting and Victorian times is helping her write her second novel.

Suzanne Moyers, a former teacher, was an education editor and writer for over 20 years. A lifelong history geek, Suzanne spends her free time as a volunteer archeologist, mudlarker, and metal detectorist. Suzanne is the proud mom to two amazing young adults, Sara and Jassi, and resides in the greater New York City area with her husband, Edward, and spoiled fur baby, Tuxi.

To learn more about Suzanne, click here.