Hear us Roar

This week's guest is Adele Holmes (Winter's Reckoning, She Writes Press, August 2022). We discuss the complexity of not only writing three-POVs of different age groups and gender in her debut novel but also setting it in a tumultuous time period (the rural south of 1917 America) when the KKK was resurging and both women's rights, civil rights, and secondary education were under attack. A former pediatrician, Adele shares how her creative well had become depleted, how more experienced writers shared not only their advice but also their audience with her, and how marketing remains her least favorite part of the writing journey.

Adele Holmes graduated from medical school in 1993. After twenty-plus years in private practice pediatrics, her unquenchable desire to wander the world, write, and give back to the community led her to retire from medicine. Her fun-loving family includes a rollicking crew of her husband Chris, two adult children and their spouses, five grandchildren of diverse ages and talents, a horse, and a Bernedoodle. Winter's Reckoning, Adele's debut novel, won Honorable Mention in the 2021 William Faulkner Literary Competition and first place in the 2021 Chanticleer International Book Award-Goethe Award. Kirkus Reviews called it "A notable tale that offers the hope that even small actions can lead toward greater good." She is currently at work on her second novel in her resident town of Little Rock, Arkansas.

To learn more about Adele, click here.

Our guest this week is Carol Dunbar (The Net Beneath Us, Forge, September 2022). A successful actor in Minneapolis, Carol realized she was a storyteller working in the wrong art form so she switched from the world of the stage to the world of the page and moved off the grid with her family to rural Wisconsin. Her debut is the story of a woman who must deal with grief and open herself up to community when a tragic accident cleaves her world in two. Carol shares how an unexpected gift led to her perfect title and how investing in a writing conference changed her life. And if your dream is to be published by the Big Five, listen to her journey of finding the perfect agent to being on sub for four years to landing a two-book deal with an imprint of McMillan and working with a talented in-house editor whose probing questions taught her to be a better writer.

CAROL DUNBAR is a working writer and former actor who left her life in the city to live off the grid. She is the author of two novels, The Net Beneath Us, winner of the 2022 Edna Ferber Fiction Book Award, and A Winter's Rime, releasing in the fall of 2023. She writes from a solar-powered office on the second floor of a water tower in northern Wisconsin, where she lives in a house in the woods with her husband, two kids, and a Great Pyrenes Mountain Dog.

To learn more about Carol, click here.

This week's podcast guest is Angela Cairns (Touch, indie published August 2022). A resident of the UK, Angela's fiction is informed by her work as a physiotherapist and healer. We talk about the rich history of storytelling and its ability to reach people at a deep emotional level and her belief that moving even one reader makes all the hard work behind producing a novel worthwhile. An entrepreneur at heart, Angela initially went the agent/publisher route but then, spurred on by the premature death of a beloved friend, she decided life's too short and began to educate herself on the ins and outs of self-publishing. The result is her 4-book series which follows a woman as she navigates life's milestones.

Angela writes books for people who love people and life in all its tangled glory – for those who quietly work for transformation and believe in happy endings. In her books, you will find resilient, relatable heroines with warm hearts who try to do the next right thing despite difficult circumstances and their own saboteur voices.Her first novel, Touch, became an Amazon best-seller. There are now four novels in the Ellie Rose Series. Her first historical romance novel, A Song for Kitty, is due for release on 24th August 2023 by The Book Reality Experience and Leschenault Press.

Her short stories have been published in 'Yours' magazine and feature regularly on the radio. She is a regular guest on writing podcasts and summits.Angela is also a writing coach and passionate about people being inspired to write. She believes that creativity can be messy, and scary, but we must do it anyway. The world needs each unique voice – and if not you, then who can write your truth? Married with two grown lads and three grandsons, Angela is owned by two Gordon Setter dogs.

To learn more about Angela, click here.

Our podcast this week features Sharon Peterson (The Do-Over, Bookouture, August 2022). Tempted to give up writing when faced with raising four children (two with special needs), a downsized husband hospitalized with COVID, and the loss of her house in a natural disaster, Sharon turned to blogging as free therapy and with a sense of humor, a dose of humility and a tendency to overshare, discovered a community of bookstagrammers, a loyal agent, and a supportive writing home in WFWA and wound up with a two-book contract with a division of Hatchette.

Sharon M. Peterson is a former middle school teacher and has the personality to prove it. One of her favorite quotes is from Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath: "It was her habit to build up laughter out of inadequate materials." She strives to tackle life that way and create characters who do the same. She lives in Washington with her husband and four children, including two autistic sons. She has one cat, two dogs, one tattoo, and an intense fear of poodles (don't ask). Sharon is the author of The Do-Over and The Fake Out, both romantic comedies. She can usually be found hunched over her computer, creating characters and stories she hopes you'll love as much as she does.

To learn more about Sharon, click here.

This week our guest is Dianne Braley (The Silence in the Sound, Koehler Books, August 2022). Her experience working on Martha's Vineyard as private nurse to William Styron, Pulitzer-prize winning author of Sophie's Choice, provided the framework for Dianne's debut novel as well as her childhood trauma of growing up with an alcoholic parent. We discuss author platform (she runs a popular blog for nurses) as well as the strategy of affiliating with an existing charity that aligns with your novel's theme.

A raw, gritty New Englander, Dianne C. Braley found love for the written word early on, reading and creating stories while trying to escape hers, growing up in the turbulent world of alcoholism while living in the tough inner city. After putting her pencil down for a time, she became a registered nurse finding strength and calm in caring for those who couldn't care for themselves. She soon became the private nurse for an ailing Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist who was not only her patient but became her friend and motivator. He and his books helped her realize she missed crafting stories, and she had some to tell.

Dianne and her family—human, furry, and feathered—are firmly planted in a small town north of Boston but not far enough away to lose her city edge. She is earning her degree in creative writing and still reeling from the success of her first novel, The Silence in the Sound, which was inspired by actual events and released in 2022. Part of the proceeds from her book are shared with the Robert F. Kennedy Community Alliance organization that assists children and families affected by addiction.

To read more about Dianne, click here.

Listen here to our interview with Rita H. Rowe (Becoming Ruthless. Indie published, October 2021). Rita's a prolific writer, releasing eight books so far with others around the corner yet she's still learning and growing as an author, particularly when it comes to how to publicize her work. We discuss her organic method of writing (pantser all the way) and how her first novel sprang from an event that blindsided a best friend. A resident of Australia, Rita hasn't found it easy to connect to fellow writers, so as a recent member of WFWA, she's found not only a trove of information but a new set of friends as well.

Rita H Rowe is a teacher and author with a Bachelor of Arts, a Diploma of Education, and a Masters in Writing. Her journey into writing began as a lifelong dream that she was finally able to pursue at the age of forty-seven, resulting in her first novel, Never the Moon. Rita pours her heart and soul into her writing, incorporating her personal experiences with love, romance, hurt, and abuse. To Rita, writing is both a form of therapy and a way to connect with like-minded readers on a deeper level. As an author, Rita hopes to be remembered as someone who created worlds that readers could lose themselves in, even just for a little while. When she isn't writing, Rita enjoys playing pool, painting, going on motorbike rides, and spending time with her children and mother.

To learn more about Rita, click here.

This week we talk with Maggie Ginsberg (Still True, Univ of Wisconsin Press, September 2022). Maggie, a journalist and magazine editor, always thought the novelists she admired were born with "magic author brains", that ideas simply flowed out of their fingers onto the page. It was only after she decided to write a book herself that she discovered the similarities with er non-fiction interviews—the characters were actually "real people" and all she had to do was ask the right questions so she could understand their story. We discuss the pluses and challenges of publishing with an academic press, how the key to a major character was buried in her own personal history, and how her award-winning book unabashedly claims "Midwestern Lit" as its genre.

Maggie Ginsberg is a writer, editor and author in Wisconsin. Her debut novel, Still True, was published by the University of Wisconsin Press in September 2022 and is one of three finalists in this year's WFWA STAR Award for Outstanding Debut. It was also the honorable mention selection for the 2022 Edna Ferber Fiction Book Award and a 2023 Midwest Book Awards silver medal winner in the Literary/Contemporary/Historical Fiction category. Maggie is now a senior editor at Madison Magazine after freelancing for city, regional and national magazines since 2006, and her nonfiction work has earned numerous honors from the City Regional Magazine Association, the American Society of Journalists and Authors, and the Milwaukee Press Club. She lives with her bicycle mechanic husband and a revolving door of kids and pets.

To learn more about Maggie, click here.

This week's podcast features Carolyn Clarke (And Then There's Margaret, Black Rose Writing, July 2022). As the founder and resident guru of HenLit Central, Carolyn had a wealth of knowledge and contacts to draw from when she made the leap to novelist. Her idea to write a coming-of-middle-age story morphed into this light-hearted but ultimately touching tale of the challenges when your life includes not only the man you love, but his mother as well. We discuss working with a small press, the value of Kindle Unlimited and BookBub, and how entering your book in writing contests help with both discoverability and legitimacy for a debut author.

Carolyn Clarke is the founder and curator of HenLit Central, a blog focused on 'life and lit' for women over 40. And Then There's Margaret is her first novel. She has been an ESL teacher for over sixteen years and has co-authored several articles and resources with Cambridge University Press, MacMillan Education and her award-winning blog ESL Made Easy. She lives in Toronto, Canada with her partner, Tony, her two daughters and a bulldog, Sophie.

To learn more about Carolyn, click here.

This week's podcast is with D.F. (Donna) Kennedy (The Truth, indie-published, June 2022). We talk about her journey from writing a memoir about her unique and often trauma-filled life (sexual abuse, kidnaping, foster care) to changing her story into a fictional piece and how that decision unleashed her creative juices, ultimately resulting in a 3-part series she wrote for rapid release. We discuss her ties and synergies with Colleen Hoover, her decision to go indie, and the fact that satisfaction often lies in accomplishments other than financial success.

Donna F. Kennedy is the author of multiple novels under multiple pen names. She doesn't like to box herself into one type of story, but at the core of her novels is soul-searching thought-provoking love, loss, and/or pain. She writes with such emotion drawing from her own life experiences. Donna is a gypsy at heart, and when she isn't traveling and sharing her adventures between the pages of a good book, she shares them on social media.

For more information and for a schedule of events, please click here.

Tune in to our podcast episode with Staci Greason (All The Girls in Town, Touchpoint Press, July 2022). In her early twenties, Staci was a regular cast member on Days of Our Lives, a popular daytime soap, but she had things she wanted to say in her own words rather than other people's so she switched to writing. But that acting background still comes in handy when she's writing dialogue scenes and means she's good at knowing how people sound and move through the world. Music is also an important part of her life —knowing what her characters listen to is an essential part of her process. Her message to writers: books can have a long and varied life – hers is billed as Bad Sisters meets 9 to 5 and is currently being shopped as a book to feature deal.

Staci Greason's literary achievements include award-winning television pilots and screenplays. Her well-reviewed novel, All the Girls in Town, was published by Touch Point Press (July 26, 2022). Her short stories and essays have been published in Brevity, Slate, Lunch Ticket, AFLW, the Same, and the Huff Post. In her past life, she played the late Isabella Toscano Black on Days of Our Lives. Staci lives in Southern California.

To learn more about Staci, click here.