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PODCAST

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If you"re an aspiring author and want insights into what"s involved in launching a book into the world, this is the podcast for you. Maggie Smith, author and blogger, interviews debut novelists from the Women"s Fiction Writers Association discussing not only the inspiration behind their book, but also their insights into the writing process, the best advice they ever got, and the joys and sometimes pitfalls they encountered on their path to publication.

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All Episodes

31:38

284: Susan Wadds - Author of What the Living Do

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2025/07/17

Our guest this week is Susan Wadds (What the Living Do, Regal House Publishing, March 2024). Susan describes her biggest writing challenge as taking all the disparate pieces of her story and organizing/structuring them into a coherent whole and shares the various techniques she’s tried (including an atelier in France!). Later we delve into how cultivating dream agents can pay off and the one thing that’s most surprised her about the audience for her debut. Resources mentioned in this interview:

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31:26

283: Jann Everard - Author of Blue Runaways

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2025/07/11

This week we welcome Jann Everard (Blue Runaways, Stonehewer Books, March 2024) to the podcast. In a switch-up to our regular fare of novelists, Jann’s women’s fiction debut is a collection of twelve short stories instead and we spend time talking about how one goes about first picking the selections (including looking at themes and cohesion), then ordering them for flow and pace, and finally the challenge of getting a collection published in today’s market. If you’ve ever wondered about writing

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36:49

282: Melissa Bacon - Author of Through Her Lens

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2025/07/03

Our guest this week is Melissa Bacon (Through Her Lens, Atmosphere Press, April 2024). What if you aren’t setting out to build a career as an author but instead have one fascinating book you’re dying to write? Where most of the writers on the pod hope to write more books, Melissa, a fine art photographer and statistician, took 10 years to research and write her historical novel set in Britain during WWII, and isn’t all that sure she wants to do it again. And that’s okay in our book. Meanwhile, she

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30:33

280: Gail Priest - Author of Soul Dancing

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2025/06/27

This week we welcome Gail Priest to the podcast (Soul Dancing, Red Adept Publishing, May 2024) Gail comes out of a theatre background and her previous work included plays so the first thing she writes is all the dialogue, then goes back and adds in scene, description, action, and all the rest of the connecting tissue. Her debut is a tale of an unusual love triangle with more than a hint of magic realism and she picked a small press primarily based on its offering of a developmental edit. We

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36:06

280: Jayna Sheats- Author of Hanna's Ascent

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2025/06/19

My guest this week is Jayna Sheats (Hanna’s Ascent, Bedazzled Ink Publishing, June 2023). Growing up a poor boy in rural Colorado, Jayna went on to receive a Ph.D. in Chemistry from Stanford, founded 3 companies, and holds several patents, but her biggest achievement was embracing her core identity as a trans woman 20 years ago and writing a literary novel that explores the trauma and triumphs which lay at the heart of that experience. After 200,000 revisions, 5 book coaches, and 203 submissions,

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33:13

279: Micki Berthelot Morency- Author of The Island...

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2025/06/12

My guest this week is Micki Berthelot Morency (The Island Sisters, BHC Press, June 2023). Her book is a perfect adjunct for Women’s Fiction Week as her inspiration for putting pen to paper was to give voice to the often-unheard from victims of physical and mental abuse—women she encountered growing up in Haiti as well as women she worked with in her career as a care manager in the U.S. We explore the challenge of writing in a “third” language (after Creole and French), how her book found a home at

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28:41

278: Marcy Lane- Author of A Mercy of Widows

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2025/06/05

My guest this week is Marcy Lane (A Mercy of Widows, indie published, August 2023). Hear how two life events – serving on a jury and losing a partner – formed the basis of Marcy’s debut novel. We discuss the MAID initiative in Canada (Medical Assistant in Dying), her very personal reason for determining early on to self-publish, and how her second book is springing not from what she knows but what she wants to know more about. We close with an interesting result from a DNA test. Marcy Lane writes

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40:04

277: Rosey Lee - Author of The Gardins of Edin

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2025/05/29

Our guest this week is Rosey Lee (The Gardins of Edin, Waterbrook Press, January 2024). Rosey, whose alter ego is as a float physician and health equity advocate, first began with flash fiction, which eventually helped her complete a rough draft of her novel in only 6 weeks. We discuss finding an agent and publisher for crossover “Christian” fiction, her use of a mental health sensitivity reader, and how she augmented her publisher’s marketing plan with her own, including a self-funded book tour.

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39:40

276: Lorraine Norwood- Author of The Solitary Sparrow

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2025/05/22

This week we talk with Lorraine Norwood (The Solitary Sparrow, Atmosphere Press, February 2024). Lorraine fell in love with the Middle Ages at a young age and carried that interest paired with her love of research into adulthood where, as a young mother, she started writing a book about a fictional peasant girl who aspired to be the first woman doctor in 14th century England, a novel which took her 30 years to write. We discuss finding the perfect agent but being unable to land a publisher, her

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33:47

275: Beth Uznis Johnson- Author of Coming Clean

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2025/05/08

This week’s guest is Beth Uznis Johnson (Coming Clean, Regal House, January 2024). Beth turned her lifelong interest in what people’s belongings say about them into a novel centered on a cleaning lady at a crossroads and how one week with 5 different households helps her make life-altering decisions. We discuss the value of WFWA’s weekly virtual write-ins, how continuing education is a mantra for her, and how writing short stories at the same time she’s writing novels helps her not only flex her

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30:09

274: Kathryn Dodson - Author of Tequila Midnight

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2025/05/01

Our guest this week is Kathryn Dodson (Tequila Midnight, indie published, July 2023). We discuss how being a book coach gave her a leg up when she decided to publish on her own, the tricky parts to writing a series in terms of backstory, and the writing process she uses to produce 3 books a year. Hear about her decision to concentrate on building an online audience vs. personal appearances and her major piece of advice for beginning writers. Resources mentioned during this interview: Story Genius

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25:14

273: Raven West - Author of Vashti's Daughter

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2025/04/24

This week guest is Raven West (Vashti’s Daughter, indie published, July 2023). Before there was Esther in the Bible there was Vashti, whose story provided the impetus for Raven’s women’s fiction novel set in 366 AD. We discuss why sometimes it’s good when a book takes a long time to germinate, the difficulty in finding comps for certain novels, why she went the indie route, and the four best pieces of advice she has for authors just starting out. A seasoned guest on radio shows, podcasts, and

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34:34

272: Marie McCurdy- Author of The Wolf Queen

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2025/04/18

This week’s guest is Marie McCurdy (The Wolf Queen, indie published, November 2023). Marie’s novel, set in the Year 1 AD was five years in the making and involved a deep dive into historical records dating back to the height of the Roman Empire and its attempted invasion of the Germanic territories of Europe. We discuss the challenges of writing an historical women’s fiction about a female character where little is known, how she broke with her first publisher, and the all importance of the right

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34:42

271: Sheila Athens- Author of Neena Lee Is Seeing Things

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2025/04/10

Our podcast guest this week is Sheila Athens (Neena Lee Is Seeing Things, indie published, January 2024). Sheila and I discuss how her book started with a famous person and a setting near her home and grew from there, how she thinks storytelling differs from writing, and how the thing readers love best about her novel is the older protagonist. Hear why she opted to spend her money on a book coach rather than a developmental editor and how an upcoming anniversary was the final push she needed to

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39:49

270: Gayle Brown- Author of A Deadly Game

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2025/03/27

This week’s guest is Gayle Brown (A Deadly Game, Black Rose Writing, December 2023). We why you might want to consider hiring a book coach, how a TV show provided the spark for this suspense book, and how Gayle re-wrote her ending numerous times to make sure it hit the sweet spot between satisfying but also surprising. She gives us her take on publishing with the Big Five vs. a smaller press, the marketing efforts behind her successful launch, and how she’s planning to grow her new career as a

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32:28

269: Olivia Sparrow- Author of Secrets of the Sassafras

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2025/03/20

My guest this week is Olivia Sparrow (Secret of the Sassafras, indie published, October 2023). Olivia’s someone who dived into the writing world with the attitude of “I’ll figure it out” and has done just that, including initially penning a 175,000 word debut (a Beta Reader taught her about word count), turning to Google and the library for Query Tracker and agent contacts, using Fiverr and Reedsy to find book cover designers and editors, and teaching herself Vellum software to format her book. If

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30:55

268: Amy Hagstrom- Author of The Wild Between Us

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2025/03/13

My guest this week is Amy Hagstrom (The Wild Between Us, Lake Union Press, November 2023). If you’ve ever wondered whether to keep working on a manuscript or put it in a drawer, this episode will resonate with you. Amy’s debut was one that got rejected by over a hundred agents, but she kept revising this dual-timeline, dual POV story of lost kids in the Sierra Nevada Mountains and after landing an agent with another book that didn’t get picked up, this one found a home at the Amazon women’s

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37:19

267: Kerry F Freeman- Author of Sedona: A Novel

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2025/03/06

This week’s guest is Kerry F. Freeman (Sedona: A Novel, The Wild Rose Press, November 2023). Kerry’s book, a reimagining of The Wizard of Oz set in present-day Sedona, was written as an antidote to COVID-isolation and has proved a hit with book clubs as they chase down the Easter Eggs Kerry planted from the original source material, including who’s the lion, the tinman, and the scarecrow. We discuss how she started a feature on her website called Books and Bevies which led to a fan base even

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36:05

266: Karen Klink- Author of At What Cost, Silence?

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2025/02/27

Our guest this week is Karen Klink (At What Cost, Silence? She Writes Press, October 2023). Karen’s novel grew out of her desire to explore bi-sexuality but in an historical setting – in this case, pre-Civil War. We discuss how her writing journey began when she contributed to a fan-fiction internet site and subsequently received encouragement from a writing professor. Unable to find an agent and thus closed out of traditional publishing, she received a posthumous monetary gift from a lifelong

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34:04

265: K J Fieler- Author of Shadow Runner

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2025/02/20

Our guest this week is KJ Fieler (Shadow Runner, Black Rose Press, June 2023). Fieler set out to write a short story for an anthology but soon found her tale ballooning past the standard word count, eventually becoming a 3-book series. We discuss where this epic trilogy belongs on the shelf—it straddles historical fantasy, women’s fiction, Victorian adventure and Gaslamp (this last a truly niche genre similar to Steampunk, which focuses more on characters than plot). Learn about what it’s like to

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