Hear us Roar

Our latest interview is with Sarah Penner (The Lost Apothecary, Park Row/Harper Collins, March 2021). Starting with the high-concept hook of an apothecary who provides women in 18th century London the means to take revenge on predatory men, Sarah received offers of representative from half the agents she queried and sold her book in one day. A true-life success story, she landed a spot on the NY Times Best-Seller list and her novel has been optioned by Fox Entertainment for a long-form drama series. Hear her story of learning to write women with agency, her fascination with potions, herbs, and teas, and her decision to quit her corporate finance job to pursue life as a novelist.

A graduate of the University of Kansas, Sarah spent thirteen years in corporate finance and now writes full-time. She and her husband live in St. Petersburg, Florida with their miniature dachshund, Zoe. Her book has been translated into forty languages worldwide.

To learn more about Sarah, click here.

Jill's dual time-line debut is loosely based on her grandmother's story of life during the depression and finding her way into a creative career, much the way Jill has since leaving her high-tech career. And if there ever was a testimonial for what the Women's Fiction Writer's Association can offer a novice writer, Jill's story qualifies – she's a member of a critique group, she's participating in the agent pitch event, she's taken numerous seminars, and now she's appeared on the podcast. Truly a writer who's open to taking advantage of every opportunity to hone her craft.

Jill's short stories have been published in 805Lit, Oyster River Pages, The Potato Soup Journal, and elsewhere. After working for nearly thirty years as a high tech marketing and product manager, Jill now pursues her passion for creative writing full time. She lives in Raleigh, North Carolina with her husband and daughter.

To learn more about Jill, click here.

Hear how an unexpected encounter in a grocery store line became the impetus for Christina Consolino's novel and how she did a major rewrite late in the process to give both her POV characters more agency. We also delve into her decision to publish with a small press, how her best marketing tool has been word of mouth advertising from groups like WFWA, and about our mutual love for the November phenomenon called NaNoWriMo.

Christina is a scientist turned writer and editor whose work has appeared in multiple online and print outlets. Her debut novel, Rewrite the Stars, was named one of ten finalists for the Ohio Writers' Association Great Novel Contest 2020, and she is the co-author of Historic Photos of University of Michigan. She serves as senior editor at the online journal Literary Mama and contributing editor for Shelf Unbound, freelance edits both fiction and nonfiction, and teaches writing classes at Word's Worth Writing Connections. Christina loves to connect with writers of all stages and lives in Kettering, Ohio, with her family and rotating cast of pets.

To learn more about Christina, click here.

We discuss KD's debut, a fictionalized version of a small-town murder in the late 1920's that wound up garnering world-wide attention.and took place only two counties over from KD's home base in southwestern Wisconsin. KD credits the advice she got from a former student as well as support from local bookstores and mentoring from women authors in our association with giving her the support she needed to produce this historical fiction which was subsequently selected as a finalist in the WFWA 2021 Star Awards for Best Debut Novel. Listen to the end to hear what infamous accused murderer lives in her family tree.

Kate is a retired educator who lives with her husband in the beautiful rolling hills of Wisconsin. She is a member of the Wisconsin Writers Association and the Women's Fiction Writers Association with a passion for historical fiction mixed with true crime/mystery. She enjoys her family, her flower/fairy gardens, researching her ancestry, and traveling the backroads of Wisconsin looking for a new story to tell.

To learn more about KD, click here.

Jeannee delves into her love for the rich heritage of Afghanistan, which forms the backdrop of her debut and how, even at an early age, teachers singled her stories out for praise, so she's always considered herself a writer despite years as a professor as well as a photographer. You'll learn how she re-wrote her book several times based on feedback from both agents and other writers and why she opted for a small press over the agent/traditional publisher route.

A former English professor, Jeannée Sacken is a photojournalist who travels throughout Africa, South America, and Asia documenting the lives of women and children. Behind the Lens is her debut novel. Double Exposure, her second novel featuring Annie Hawkins Green, is slated for release in October 2022. She lives in Shorewood, Wisconsin with her husband and cats and loves to make guest appearances at book clubs to discuss her novels.

To learn more about Jeannee, click here.

Beatryce and I discuss about how she purposely wanted to write a book about boomers finding a soulmate rather than millennials, how she found the perfect hybrid press to teach her about launching a debut, How she lets her characters take her on a roller-coaster ride if they want, and her unique technique for capturing those novel ideas that come to all of us at 4 in the morning.

Beatryce Ruby has been an international bed and breakfast operator in Alaska and an English teacher in California. She has survived a hot air balloon crash in the Mojave Desert, an over-the-cliff and down-the-mountain auto crash in the Tehachapi Mountains, and a ski crash in Devil's Head, Wisconsin. When enjoying a more tranquil life on terra firma, she writes engrossing adult stories, fanciful children's stories, ruminative poetry, inspirational vignettes, and arresting short stories. Receiving her BA from California State University, Los Angeles, studying Romance languages and linguistics at UCLA, she completed her teacher training through the University of San Diego. Now living in the Southeast, she observes the sprawling natural surroundings and the madding crowd. With these as her inspiration, she derives fresh ideas for new stories.

To learn more about Beatryce, click here.

Gina spoke to us from Australia only hours after a major earthquake shook her town, but she's used to living in danger zones. In fact, her real-life experience of living in Baghdad at the time of Hussein's toppling and discovering a good friend was an informant for the Iraqi government was the springboard for Gina's debut which subsequently became a Target Book of the Month pick. Moving from her previous career as a foreign correspondent into novel writing offered challenges but proved to be the unique card Gina played during querying her novel which landed her an agent here in the States. We discuss an ethical question explored in her book -- what happens when good people are forced to make choices which go against their moral code?

Gina Wilkinson has been a nomad from the age of six-months, when her parents packed their belongings into an old Renault and set off for a remote gold-mining town in Australia's Nullarbor desert. Since then, she's circumnavigated the globe many times. As a foreign correspondent, she reported from some of the globe's most intriguing and dangerous places for renowned broadcasters such as the BBC, NPR, and the ABC, before trading in her reporter's notebook for an author's pen. After 20 years living and working overseas, including eight years in the United States, she returned to her homeland of Australia. She now lives in Melbourne with her Canadian-born husband, two sons, and a furless cat called Obiwan.

To learn more about Gina, click here.

Even though her fiction often has speculative and magical elements (she's a life-long fan of monsters and snakes) Tiffany considers her primary goal as an author to dive deep into the "why" people behave the way they do, rather than contriving intricate plots. When it came to publishing, she took a gamble and went with a small publisher just starting out that she heard about through a member announcement in the WFWA newsletter. Turned out the owner herself was also a member and soon after signing, the press was acquired by a larger entity, offering additional resources and support.

Tiffany is writer and poet hailing from Phoenix, Arizona. Her debut novel, A Flood of Posies, was released in February 2021 with Black Spot Books. Her second book, Little Bird, releases in 2022 also with Black Spot. Her work has been published in multiple magazines over the years, including Shoreline of Infinity, Luna Station Quarterly, The Molotov Cocktail, and others. Find her online at Twitter and Instagram @TMeuretBooks for deep discussions about small dogs and bad movies.

To learn more about Tiffany, click here.

Elizabeth and I discuss her experience with PitchWars (thumbs up), losing her first agent (thumbs down) and how she had to segment her marketing approach to appeal to divergent audiences (historical fiction, steampunk, sci-fi, fantasy, romance, and yes, women's fiction) since her debut didn't fit neatly into one genre. Even though she signed with a small publisher, her novel would up topping the charts, scored a BookBub deal, garnered rave reviews from Library Journal and Publishers Weekly, and is being expanded into a five-book series. And be sure to listen to the short passage Elizabeth reads from her novel – since she's a trained actress, it's an audiobook come to life.

Elizabeth makes her home in Connecticut and is a Writers of the Future Contest winner, a Golden Heart® finalist, a Pitch Wars alumna, and a member of SFWA., The sequel to her debut, The Brass Queen: Grand Tour, will be published in 2022. When she's not writing, Elizabeth works as a voiceover actor and there's a rumor she possesses the world's best scone recipe.

To learn more about Elizabeth, click here.

Shail Rajan woke up on December 9th, after a difficult few months for her family, and decided to publish the novel she'd had in the drawer for years. And not just sometime in the future after she'd gotten an agent and found a publisher, but that very day. She followed the KDP instructions step-by-step, worked with her teenage daughter to fashion a cover, and before the sun went down, she hit publish. Our far-ranging conversation covers why she purposely wrote a "feel-good" book, how all the recipes in her book are vegetarian but no one but her father has ever mentioned it, and how she's living out a true romance that started when she was 3 years old in India.

Born in India, raised in beautiful Upstate New York, and now soaking up the sun in California with her family, Shail has been writing stories to entertain herself for almost two decades. Her manuscripts have been sitting patiently on her laptop waiting for the day when she'd finally be ready to send them out into the world. That day came on December 9, 2020 when she published her debut novel The Summer Breeze, a book which is a celebration of all the things that mean so much to her: family, friendships, food, and falling in love. Shail is currently working on a romantic suspense novel and the next book in The Summer Breeze series.

To learn more about Shail, click here.