Hear us Roar

Enjoy our interview with Cherie Genua (Greetings from Tucson, indie-published, September 2021). Cherie, a self-described "woman in tech", adds novelist to her resume with the release of this fictionalized account of her grandmother's story, who lost her parents at a young age and then was separated from 2 of her 3 sisters for years afterwards. The hand-written letters Cherie discovered in a box after her grandmother's death provided the inspiration, and Cherie provided the hard work, teaching herself not only about the craft of writing, but navigating the convoluted publication process, including cover design, formatting, Amazon ads, and social media/publicity.

After facing a life-changing breast cancer diagnosis at the age of 34, Cherie co-authored the non-fiction book "Wisdom From Five Cancer Travelers: Lessons Learned" with others affected by the disease. She was declared "no evidence of disease" in 2019 and made it a mission to write and publish her first fiction novel, "Greetings from Tucson," inspired by her grandmother's story. Cherie lives in Connecticut with her husband, Matt, and their Portuguese Water Dog, Poppy. She holds a B.A. in English from Southern Connecticut State University and an M.B.A. from the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

To learn more about Cherie, click here.

In this episode, we talk with Rebecca Campbell about writing her debut off and on for over a decade before finally finishing it and deciding to take control of the entire project, including interior formatting, cover design, and publishing it through KDP. Hailing from a small town in Australia meant primarily marketing her book online and we discuss the importance of virtual on-line communities to a writer like herself as well as how just mentioning the words "sexual desire" in her blurb was enough to get her ads booted from several venues.

Rebecca Campbell is an amateur cook and non-practicing scientist living in the New England region of northern New South Wales with her husband, two stepsons, two cats and a dog.

After studying and researching zoology, animal ecology, entomology, myrmecology and climate change for ten years, she realized academia wasn't for her and rediscovered her passion for creative writing.

When she's not feeding people and sharing her love of food or favorite recipes, or blogging about homosexual necrophilia in the mallard duck and hyena clitorises, or recounting some of her best late-night, whisky-fueled arguments with people who were wrong on the Internet, Rebecca writes women's fiction.

Her first novel, Sandalwood, touches on grief, sex, the power of scent, and confronting the past. Her second novel, Triptych, which she is currently working on, tells the interwoven stories of three vastly different women, and explores an age-hypogamous intimate relationship, forbidden love, and a non-monogamous marriage.

After recording some very ordinary backing vocals on her husband's album, she now likes to think she's a little bit garage-punk and bluesy-swamp-rock when really she's a little bit more perfume and red lipstick.

She needs you to know that myrmecology is the scientific study of ants, not mermaids.

To learn more about Rebecca, click here.

Our host Maggie Smith leads a roundtable discussion with the three finalists for the WFWA Star Award for Women's Fiction/Debut category as they discuss what it means to write "women's fiction", the trajectory of their writing careers, finding camaraderie with their peers, the value of book awards, and what they've learned from readers since their book's publication.

Panelists are: Julie Carrick Dalton (Waiting For the Night Song, Forge, January 2021) Joani Elliott (The Audacity of Sarah Grayson, Post Hill Press, May 2021) and Kelley McNeil (A Day Like This, Lake Union, November 2021)

Julia Daily's debut novel had its seeds in the author's personal search over forty years ago for her birth mother, a time before DNA tests and genealogical records were available online. Her tale of three disparate women, meeting at a maternity home hospital in New Orleans, has resonated with adoptees like herself, with its message of joy, hope, and renewal. We also discuss Julia's podcast, aptly named "Authors over 50" where she interviews older debut writers, celebrating the creativity of people in the latter third of their life.

Julia Brewer Daily is a Texan with a southern accent. She holds a B.S. in English and a M.S. degree in Education from the University of Southern Mississippi. She has been a Communications Adjunct Professor at Belhaven University, Jackson, Mississippi, and Public Relations Director of the Mississippi Department of Education and Millsaps College, a liberal arts college in Jackson, MS as well as the founding director of the Greater Belhaven Market, a producers' only market in a historic neighborhood in Jackson, and even shadowed Martha Stewart. And as the Executive Director of the Craftsmen's Guild of Mississippi (300 artisans from 19 states) which operates the Mississippi Craft Center, she wrote their stories to introduce them to the public.

She is a member of the Writers' League of Texas, the Women Fiction Writers' Association, The Official Pulpwood Queens Book Club, Writing the West, and the Women's National Book Association. A lifelong southerner, she now resides on a ranch in Fredericksburg, Texas, with her husband Emmerson and Labrador retrievers, Memphis Belle and Texas Star.

To learn more about Julia, click here.

Sarah's book started out as a kind of third person typed journal, a reflection on a "what if" situation she encountered in her psychiatric practice. Once it came time to publish, you'll laugh along with us at her fairy tale story of querying Gillian Flynn's agent out of the blue even though she was closed to submissions and being offered representation within a day. We also discuss the pros and cons of signing with an imprint of the Big Five.

Sarah Adlakha is a native of Chicago who now lives along the Mississippi Gulf Coast with her husband, three daughters, two horses, and one dog. She started writing fiction shortly after retiring from her psychiatry practice. Her debut novel, She Wouldn't Change a Thing, was a CNN most anticipated book of 2021. Midnight on the Marne is her second novel.

To learn more about Sarah, click here.

This novel has its roots in Karen seeking answers as a mother as to how to raise a good son which eventually resulted in her fulfilling her lifelong dream to live on a Greek island for a year, where she was disciplined enough to write her first draft, despite the lure of the seaside location. We talk about synchronicity—how sometimes a book or a person or a place comes along at precisely the moment your spirit needs it, and how Karen came to embrace the indie route to publishing as the best vehicle to make her voice heard.

Karen Martin has worked as an independent writer and director in theatre performance for over thirty years, and written and produced many notable theatre scripts as well as physical narratives for circus performance, touring nationally and internationally. She contributed to several non-fiction books: The Women's Circus: Leaping the Wire, and Women in Theatre: Ewa Czajor Memorial Award Recipients, and received a Local History Award for the writing and publication of two booklets on her award-winning production of The Women's Jail Project (TWJP:A History; TWJP: A Performance).

Dancing the Labyrinth is her debut novel and the first book in her themed series Women Unveiled.

To learn more about Karen, click here.

Hear how C. took events from her own life, including her Italian heritage, her closeness with her grandfather, and her love of cooking, and worked it into her debut novel. We delve into the fallout that occurred with her initial publisher, her decision to indie publish rather than starting back at square one, and how helpful the webinars available through WFWA were in teaching her the fundamentals of both novel-writing and marketing her book.

C. D'Angelo is the Women's Fiction author of The Differenceand The Visitor. When not writing relatable stories of the Italian American culture, she can be found at home in Florida enjoying time with her husband, playing ukulele, drawing, crocheting, and partaking in a variety of other artistic endeavors.

To learn more about C., click here.

Here how the inspiration from this story came from a "what if" moment while Penny was hiking with friends in the mountainous Tsitsikamma region of South Africa where she lives, how she had to change the ending of her novel because her character insisted on it, and how after years in fact-based journalism she rediscovered her childhood joy in telling made-up stories.

Penny Haw worked as a journalist and columnist for more than three decades, writing for many leading South African newspapers and magazines before yielding to a lifelong yearning to create fiction. Her stories feature remarkable women, illustrate her love for nature and animals, and explore the interconnectedness of all living things. Her children's book, Nicko was published in 2017. It was followed by a work of contemporary fiction, The Wilderness Between Us in 2021. Penny's debut historical fiction, The Invincible Miss Cust is based on the life of Britain and Ireland's first woman veterinary surgeon, Aleen Cust and will be published by Sourcebooks in October 2022. A second work of historical fiction will be published, also by Sourcebooks, in 2023. Penny lives in Hout Bay near Cape Town with her husband and three dogs, all of whom are well-walked.

To learn more about Penny, click here.

I love Elizabeth's suggestion to "put your pen on the paper and see what happens." When she did that to an earlier manuscript that she initially conceived of as a romantic comedy, the result was a story of three sisters dealing with the aftermath of their mother's suicide when they were children. We discuss how her husband found her a literary agents, how it took three manuscripts for her agent to finally sell one of her books, and how, at this stage of her career, she doesn't fill she needs a critique group so much as a social setting to interface with other writers.

Elizabeth has a Master of Theological Studies from Harvard Divinity School and has been admitted to writing residencies at the Jentel Artist Residency, the Hambidge Center for Creative Arts and Sciences, and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. She is a member of several writing groups, including Grub Street Writers' Collective of Boston, the Newburyport Writers' Group, Sisters in Crime New England, and the New Hampshire Writers' Project. She lives in a small town in Northeast Massachusetts with her husband, daughter, and labradoodle.

To learn more about Elizabeth, click here.

This week's podcast guest is Julee Balko (The Things We Keep, GenZ Publishing, July 2021). The impetus for Julee's book was her own grief following the death of her mother and her frustration at not finding books which dealt in a realistic and honest way with this crucial life experience. We discuss what it was like publishing with a small press, the difference between an author and a writer, and how she doesn't set strict deadlines in her author life, but writes when the spirit moves her. Julee's also a huge Twitter fan, amassing over 10,000 followers in her first year of writing both funny and creative posts as @misplacedcomma2.

Julee has been a Creative Director and freelance writer for years – while mothering and lassoing her three crazy daughters in her spare time. But she's always wanted to be a "real" writer – the kind who has a book with her name on it. The Things We Keep is her first novel and a dream come true. Julee started writing this book after her mother passed away because she was thrust into a world of grief that no one talks about. She wrote this story especially for women and men who are a part of the sandwich generation – those who are trying to take care of their aging parents while balancing parenting, a job, and multiple glasses of wine. She is working on her second novel, "The Me List," which brings to life an unlikely friendship between neighbors.

To learn more about Julee, click here.