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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

29:53

245: Hope Gibbs- Author of Where The Grass Grows Blue

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2024/08/22

Our guest this week is Hope Gibbs (Where The Grass Grows Blue, Red Adept, May 2023). Hope looked around as her kids left for college and thought what now? The result is this southern women’s fiction/contemporary romance mash-up that’s won 13 major writing awards and been licensed by Blackstone for an audiobook release. We discuss how a chapter her editor had her take out because it didn’t advance the story later became the perfect epilogue, how she joined WFWA and immediately binge watched every

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29:35

244: Michelle Paris - Author of New Normal

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2024/08/15

This week’s podcast guest is Michelle Paris (New Normal, Apprentice House Press, May 2023). We discuss writing as a catharsis for personal grief, creating a character who’s a stand-in for your own alter ego, the benefits of working with critique groups for useful and safe advice, and how editorial feedback is only useful when you’re ready to hear it. And tune in to hear how Michelle worked with students at the country’s only college-run press at Loyola University in Maryland to bring her book to

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22:10

243: Amanda Speights - Author of Love's Arrival

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2024/08/08

Our guest this week is Amanda Speights (Love’s Arrival, indie published, March 2023). We discuss how her need for control meant she planned to self-publish from the very beginning but also used experts for two important tasks, why 1800’s America has always held a special place in her heart, and how her own childhood trauma helped inform her heroine’s struggles. A self-described “woo” advocate who meditates three times a day, Amanda credits WFWA and specifically its affinity sub-group for indie

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33:36

242: Laurie Beach- Author of The Firefly Jar

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2024/08/01

This week’s guest is Laurie Beach (The Firefly Jar, Tule Publishing, April 2023). We discuss how she was inspired by a South Carolina wildlife preserve to create her own series’ setting, the importance and difficulty of creating a satisfying ending, and how her experience with grief informed her book’s emotional core. Laurie also shares how she initially taught herself about novel writing by deconstructing Jane Austen’s work, and how her “starter” novel proved invaluable when she took generative

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35:35

241: Gabi Coatsworth- Author of A Beginner's Guide to...

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2024/07/18

Our podcast guest this week is Gabi Coatsworth (A Beginner’s Guide to Starting Over, Atmosphere Press, April 2023). The concept of a benevolent ghost helping a loved one move on is a popular trope at the moment and Gabi’s book fits right in. Readers like its blend of optimism and small town charm and it has proved there is room for humor in women’s fiction as well as heavier topics like grief and loss. Gabi is a member of both a local critique group and also runs one of WFWA’s Write-Ins, partly

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36:25

July 2024 Special Episode: The Editors of the Feisty...

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2024/07/11

This week’s special episode is a roundtable discussion with four of the editors of the anthology Feisty Deeds published on Women’s Fiction Day June 8, 2024. This collection of 23 juried short stories came from members of WFWA’s Historical Fiction affinity group who meet weekly to share the ups and downs of writing in this genre. The selected stories range across centuries, continents, and cultures and feature ordinary women facing extraordinary challenges in astonishing ways. You’ll hear how the

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30:25

240: Cynthia Bogard- Author of The History of Silence

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2024/07/06

This week’s interview is with Cynthia Bogard (A History of Silence, Atmosphere Press, March 2023). A former university professor, Cynthia’s novel features six contemporary women grappling with issues of racism, misogyny, and societal challenges and she brought not only her background in Women’s Studies but also sensitivity readers to vet her story. We discussed how the lack of response from agents shocked her when compared to the academic feedback she was used to, how working with a hybrid press

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31:14

239: Barbara Bellesi Zito - Author of Lucky Stiff

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2024/06/20

This week we talk to Barbara Bellesi Zito (Lucky Stiff, Literary Wanderlust, January 2023). In an interesting twist to our usual interview, Barbara’s debut features a male protagonist but one who exactly fits the WFWA definition of a “main character’s emotional journey” as he processes his lottery win and what it means to his work, his family relationships, and his own growth as an individual. Written initially as a screenplay, Barbara credits that version with honing her skill at both dialogue and

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36:25

238: Kyle Ann Robertson - Author of White Picket Fences

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2024/06/13

Our feature podcast guest this week is Kyle Ann Robertson (White Picket Fences, Fulton Books, March 2023). Kyle shares how a children’s story she imagined as a “book within a book” for an adult novel morphed into a series of ten published picture books she authored before coming back to her first love of women’s fiction. She describes how journaling was her entry into writing and then we discuss the workshops she leads where she uses prompt cards to break through writer’s block and help in

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33:39

237: Patricia Bernstein- Author of A Noble Cunning

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2024/06/08

This week’s guest is Patricia Bernstein (A Noble Cunning: The Countess and the Tower, History Through Fiction, March 2023). The spark for Patricia’s story occurred on a trip to Scotland where she heard the story of a noblewoman who used trickery and cunning to rescue her husband from the Tower of London before his execution. We discuss the rabbit hole of research, the challenge of writing dialogue that sounds like historical discourse without turning off readers, and her stance that a novel should

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25:07

Special Episode: Women's Fiction Day, 2024

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2024/06/02

In honor of Women’s Fiction Day 2024, please join me for a special episode of Hear Us Roar featuring a roundtable discussion between the finalists for the 2023 Star Award for General Fiction – Erin Litteken (The Memory Keeper of Kyiv), Lyn Liao Butler (Red Thread of Fate) and Anna Collins (These Numbered Days). We talk about the genre of women’s fiction and the alternative ways of categorizing this type of story, the current state of publishing today and the career paths each of these talented

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33:51

236: Susan Carew - Author of Take The Plunge

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2024/05/30

This week’s guest is Susan Carew (Take the Plunge, indie published, March 2023). Susan, who now resides in Ireland and previously lived for eight years in Spain, took up novel writing during the pandemic, following weekly instructional posts over Instagram by the best-selling author Marian Keyes. An open-water swimmer, Susan decided to create a protagonist with that same interest and has now penned two of a 3-book series. We discuss the pluses and minuses of indie publishing, how she crashed an

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26:16

235: Heidi McIntyre - Author of Sea Magic

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2024/05/23

This week’s guest is Heidi McIntyre (Sea Magic, indie published, February 2023). Heidi’s family background with antique shops provided the impetus for her series about a dealer with paranormal powers who undercovers a series of mysteries related to found objects in her small New England town. After trying her hand at a romance, Heidi realized her emphasis on relationships meant she was a women’s fiction writer and she embraced the genre as a fit. Likewise, as a decades-long marketing consultant,

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27:50

234: Kimberly Young - Author of In the Event of Death

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2024/05/10

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

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27:08

233: Lisa Williams Kline- Author of Between the Sky...

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2024/05/02

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

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33:16

232: D. Liebhart- Author of House on Fire

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2024/04/25

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

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33:17

231: D.K. Silver- Author of The Weight of Flowers

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2024/04/11

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

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27:07

230: Annie Cathryn- Author of The Friendship Breakup

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2024/04/04

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

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34:50

229: Audrey Burges- Author of The Miniscule Mansion...

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2024/03/28

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

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32:11

228: Kimberly McMillan- Author of Never Enough Time

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2024/03/21

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

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