Our guest this week is Kimberly Young (In the Event of Death, Post Hill Press, February 2024). Tune in for a lively discussion about how Kimberly discovered her book idea of an event planner who morphs her wedding planning business into one for end of life memorials when the 2008 recession hits. We discuss the stable of talented women professionals who aided her in bringing her book into being, from mentors at the Stanford Novel Writing program, to a dream agent she got from a referral to a social media consultant who she praises for making her book a success. Unlike some guests, Kimberly credits social media, and specifically Instagram, for her healthy sales figures.

Born in the Midwest and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, Kimberly Young received her BA from Dartmouth College and an MA from Stanford University, where she was a Wallace Stegner Creative Writing Fellow. She began her career as an advertising copywriter and marketing consultant and worked with clients ranging from startups to Apple. When she isn’t writing, she fundraises for organizations focused on conservation and reproductive rights. In the Event of Death is her debut novel, set in the suburbs of Silicon Valley. Kim and her husband have three grown children and split their time between California and the mountains of Idaho. She is currently underway on her second novel.

To learn more about Kimberly, click here.

This week we talk to Lisa Williams Kline (Between the Sky and the Sea, DragonBlade Publishing, February 2023). Previously an author of books for younger readers, Lisa decided to switch to adult fiction and she’s a proud pantser, even though she admits it takes more time to write without an outline. Her book was inspired by a real-life incident when a luxury liner (dubbed the “Titanic of the South”) sunk off the Carolina coast in 1838 and how she was hampered in her quest to do original research due to the pandemic, We discuss POV (she switched from third to first and then back to third), and how FB takeovers have proved her best technique for gaining exposure.

Lisa Williams Kline is the author of two novels for adults, Between the Sky and the Sea (Dragonblade), and Ladies’ Day (CamCat Books), as well as an essay collection entitled The Ruby Mirror (The Bridge) and a short story collection entitled Take Me (Main Street Rag). Her stories and essays have appeared in Literary Mama, Skirt, Sasee, Carolina Woman, moonShine review, The Press 53 Awards Anthology, Sand Hills Literary Magazine, and Idol Talk, among others. She is also the author of ten novels and a novella for young readers. She attended Duke University and received her MAC from UNC-Chapel Hill in Radio, Television and Motion Pictures, and her MFA from Queens University. She lives in Davidson with her veterinarian husband, a cat who can open doors, and a sweet chihuahua who has played Bruiser Woods in Legally Blonde: The Musical. She and her husband treasure frequent visits with their grown daughters and their husbands.

To learn more about Lisa, click here.

My guest this week is D. Liebhart (House On Fire, indie published, March 2023). Debra, whose novel examines the turmoil in a family when a mother, struggling with her husband’s dementia, asks her daughter for help in ending his life, is a speedy drafter, producing 2500 words per day, but a slow revisor, and a meticulous plotter who is nevertheless open to surprises as she writes. We discuss the changing landscape of publishing, how she doesn’t believe in writer’s block, and how she overcome her own prejudices against self-publishing to become a successful indie author.

D. Liebhart is a writer and a nurse. Her stories delve into the moral complexity of real life and ask readers to consider what they would do faced with the same situations. House on Fire, her first novel, won the 2023 Page Turner Award for both fiction and debut. It was long-listed for the 2022 Petrichor Prize and received an honorable mention from Writer’s Digest. Her essay Thalassophobia (a true account of a very out-of-the-ordinary honeymoon) won the 2021 Linda Julian Creative Nonfiction Prize from Emrys Journal.

To learn more about this author, click here.

This week we’re talking to D.K. Silver (The Weight of Flowers, indie published, February 2023). A costume designer for most of her career, Dana is a visual person so vivid descriptions come easily – in fact, the impetus to writing her debut was an image from a dream that was so striking it wouldn’t let her go. Not only a terrible speller but severely dyslexic, she struggled in the beginning, producing a 340,000 word opus that required serious editing, but eventually yielded a series. We discuss the fact that her protagonist resembled her personally in many ways, making her the most difficult character to write, and delve into the four major reasons an author might consider indie publishing rather than the traditional route.

D.K. Silver is the author of The Weight of Flowers, the first in a genre-bending saga. The series explores themes of sexual exploitation and dalliance, greed in its many guises and the quest for self-worth.

D.K. Silver is fearless in her determination to explore taboos, using her gifts to relentlessly dig below the surface. As a costume designer, she’s been trained to visually reveal a character’s truer nature—as a writer, she takes it to another level, passionate to unmask the deliciously decadent, the deviant, and the downright misguided aspects of our collective humanness. Her stories are paced like a slow-motion car crash that’s difficult to look away from.

To learn more about D.K., click here.

Our guest on the podcast this week is Annie Cathryn (The Friendship Breakup, Alcove Press, February 2023). After three previous attempts at a novel, Annie hit the motherlode when, in four months, she wrote the story of a Mean Girls/Bad Moms mashup. A unique take on what it’s like to be ghosted from your friends group as an adult, the novel struck a cord with new imprint Alcove and became one of their first releases. We discuss how Annie’s time as a well-connected Bookstagrammer paid off when authors she’d helped along the way with their own book releases repaid the favor in an organic way with favorable blurbs and reviews.

Annie Cathryn has always dreamed of becoming an author and lives by the motto, “Creating is Living.” The Friendship Breakup is her debut book baby, born out of love. When not writing or reading, she’s organizing her personal library collection by color and discovering delectable chocolate. She earned a journalism degree and a master’s in communications from Marquette University, and lives in Chicagoland with her husband, daughter, and two fur babies.

To learn more about Annie, click here.

This week’s guest is Audrey Burges (The Minuscule Mansion of Myra Malone, Berkley, January 2023). Audrey came up with the title for her book first, wrote it in one month during the pandemic, worked with her WFWA mentor to hone her manuscript, then quickly found both her agent and a Big Five imprint to publish it—a true fairy tale for a debut author. We discuss how she wrote humor essays to build a platform but then that niche became its own entity, how she advises authors to not to do social media to sell books but for its own sake in establishing your writing community, and how she believes not having time enough to write is what makes her so productive (she’s currently writing her seventh book)

Audrey writes novels, humor, and essays in Richmond, Virginia. Her second novel, A House Like an Accordion, will be released in May 2024 by Ace/PRH. She is a humor contributor to McSweeney’s and The New Yorker. When she isn’t writing, she’s asking her two kids and very patient husband to bring her some more coffee.

Our guest this week is Kimberly McMillan (Never Enough Time, Warren Publishing, January 2023). Kimberly’s debut is squarely in the women’s fiction genre, exploring the journey of a young girl who loses her single mother, only to discover the father she thought was dead is alive and well with another family in Texas. The book explores not only this new “found” family unit but gives a POV to the step-mother as well. We discuss how Kimberly found her editor in an unusual way, by reading the acknowledgements of a writer similar to her and tracking that person down. A hybrid publisher was the right answer for her, as Warren helped her every step of the way, including significant editing expertise as well as marketing tips.

Kimberly McMillan lives in Waco, Texas with her husband, Aaron, their two amazing daughters, and a spoiled Standard Poodle. Kimberly attended The University of Texas at Austin where she studied Broadcast Journalism. She is an avid tea drinker, accomplished photographer, dog lover, adventure seeker, book lover, bourbon taster, travel enthusiast, and foodie! When she is not writing, Kimberly loves spending time with her family and friends, enjoying everything life has to offer. Kimberly loves the Lord and hopes her love for Him shines through her work.

To learn more about Kimberly, click here.

This week’s guest is Caitlin Avery (Life of Cyn, indie published, Dec. 2022). Tune in for one of our podcast’s most raw and honest interviews as Caitlin and I discuss her decision to out her high school rapist in the pages of her women’s fiction book, her inability to land an agent (who told her “MeToo” books were dead) and her determination to bring secrets like this out of the closet and into the light, making women aware of the power of sharing their stories. Once she decided to publish on her own, Caitlin found the perfect hook to sell her book through unflinching TikTok videos and IG reels which went viral with 50,000 views and an endorsement from Rosie O’Donnell.

Caitlin Avery writes about women whose lives are amiss and can’t resist dangerous impulses. She's the author of the award-winning adventure/thriller, The Last Cruz, its recently released sequel, The Last Con, and the standalone contemporary fiction, Life of Cyn. Her first book, a coming-of-age memoir, is called Lightning in my Wires. When she's not inventing transformative adventures for her readers, she loves to indulge in them. A triathlete, mountain biker, backpacker, black-diamond skier, and yoga enthusiast, she lives outside of Boston with her husband and son, and the cat and dog who rescued her.

To learn more about Caitlin, click here.