Sierra surprises Claire with a ROMANCE AUTHOR MYSTERY GUEST (Alicia), and Claire tries hard to guess who it is. It's Alicia Thompson! She is the author of four hit novels, and graciously discusses author newsletters, her path to publishing, and how to break into publishing romance books.

Buy her books:

• Love in the Time of Serial Killers
• With Love, from Cold World
• The Art of Catching Feelings
• Never Been Shipped
• In Every Possible Way (Preorder!!)

We were delighted to welcome the cover artist behind books like BK Borison's First Time Caller, Myriam Strasbourg! She is an incredibly talented artist and you can see her work at @peaches.obviously on Instagram. She talks about how she got started in cover design, going from indie to becoming a very in-demand designer by Big 5 publishers.

https://www.myriamstrasbourg.com/

We talked to the incredible NYT bestselling author and Reese pick, Andrea Bartz, about her career trajectory including pandemic setbacks and what's next. We also touch on the landmark case, Bartz v. Anthropic.

Buy Andrea's books!

• The Last Ferry Out
• The Spare Room
• We Were Never Here
• The Herd
• The Lost Night

Claire and Sierra talk about the recent Threads discussion among writers that suggested readers want shorter novels; Sierra brings the pacing and writing perspective while Claire brings the "what's selling" POV. We also talked to author Christina Dotson, whose novel Love You To Death is a dynamite, fast-paced thriller with Thelma and Louise vibes.

Buy it:

• Love You To Death by Christina Dotson

We welcomed back our first return author guest - Liz Parker! Her new book, The Witches of Honeysuckle House, has special preorder goodies (order ahead of its October 21, 2025 pub date). We talk PR boxes, laugh a lot, and discuss why Claire isn't on the group chat!!

Order Liz's books:

• The Witches of Honeysuckle House
• In the Shadow Garden
• The Other March Sisters

Claire and Sierra discuss author PR boxes, and talk to Gretchen Schaffer and Nicole Meier from Bookworks, a boutique author branding firm with a ton of great ideas for every author at any stage of their career. Bookworks helps writers of all genres build an authentic author presence that gets their stories noticed. Combining book coaching and branding insight, they guide writers to expand their creative community and connect with ideal readers.

Find Bookworks at bookworks.co, Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/bookworks.co/

and https://bookworksgretchenandnicole.substack.com/.

We talked to Mark Waddell, author of Colin Gets Promoted and Dooms the World!

Mark Waddell grew up on the cold, windswept prairies of western Canada and later earned a Ph.D. in the history of science, medicine, and technology from the Johns Hopkins University. After teaching at Michigan State University for fifteen years, he and his husband moved to Vancouver Island. When not writing, he plays the viola in the Civic Orchestra of Victoria, walks his dogs on the beach, and slays fearsome monsters in Dungeons & Dragons.

Buy:

• Colin Gets Promoted and Dooms the World
• The Body in the Back Garden

On this special SILVER ANNIVERSARY 25th episode, Sierra and Claire talk about their season, take listener questions, and talk a little about their process bookselling (Claire, obvs), and writing and publishing (Sierra, obvs).

We'll be back in the fall and we can't thank you enough for listening, enjoying, and supporting us. Please leave a review if you can, feel free to send in questions to [email protected], and give us a rating on whatever podcast platform you use.

Thank you!!!

Our last author guest of season 1! Dianne Freeman has written an 8.5 book series and has a lot of insights about writing a series, Plus:

• Haunted hotels on Route 66
• How Claire sells a series in her store
• Sierra points out that Claire has not yet, yet again, read ACOTAR.

Dianne Freeman is a life-long book lover who left the world of corporate finance to pursue her passion for writing. After co-authoring the non-fiction book, Haunted Highway, The Spirits of Route 66, she realized her true love was fiction, historical mystery in particular. She also realized she didn’t like winter very much so now she and her husband pursue the endless summer by splitting their time between Michigan and Arizona. Her debut novel, A Lady’s Guide to Etiquette and Murder won an Agatha Award for Best Debut, a Lefty Award for Best First Novel, and was nominated for a Mary Higgins-Clark Award.

Books discussed in this episode:

• The Countess of Harleigh series by Dianne Freeman, especially her newest book, A Daughter’s Guide to Mothers and Murder
• George and Frances Roll the Dice (novella) by Dianne Freeman
• A Death on Corfu by Emily Sullivan
• Early Termination by Cindy Goyette
• This Book Will Bury Me by Ashley Winstead
• A Fashionably French Murder by Colleen Cambridge
• The Big Fix by Holly James
• The Will Trent series by Karin Slaughter
• Broken Country by Clare Leslie Hall
• Meet Me At Wonderland by Julia DeVillers

We spoke to author Meredith Schorr about the origins of chicklit, romcoms, WF, and contemporary romance. We also talked about marketing for authors from Sierra’s perspective and from Claire’s, how to navigate events for the socially awkward, and social media for authors.

Meredith's latest book, Roommating, is published today June 10, 2025 (happy book birthday!). A born and bred New Yorker and lifelong daydreamer, Meredith fueled her passion for writing everything from restaurant reviews, original birthday cards, and even work-related emails into a career penning romantic comedies. When she’s not writing books filled with grand gestures and hard-earned happily-ever-afters or working as a trademark paralegal, she’s most often reading, running, or watching TV…for research, of course. Follow her at https://www.instagram.com/meredithschorr

Books discussed in this episode (all links benefit Wild Sisters Books)

• Roommating by Meredith Schorr
• Someone Just Like You by Meredith Schorr
• As Seen On TV by Meredith Schorr
• The Hating Game by Sally Thorne
• Maine Characters by Hanna Orenstein
• Remember Me Tomorrow by Farah Heron
• Silver Elite by Dani Francis