Until I was five years old, I lived in a big house with extensive grounds. It was so big we lost the cat for several days in its many bedrooms; so extensive, it had its own tennis courts, which in summer the gardener used to mark out ready for weekend garden parties. I have a […]
Scaled Vengeance Cassidy Vickers suspected the “Scales Killer” was a woman, and she was right. As a true crime podcast host, she was obsessed with serial killers, especially when brutal abusers started turning up dead with scales drawn and carved upon them. But after the killer’s capture, Vickers retreated to a quiet life as a […]
Ariadne: A Greek Tale of Labyrinths and Legacies For fans of Madeline Miller, a retelling of the tale of a bold, resilient woman from Greek myth who transforms heartbreak into fierce strength, weaving a new legend where sanctuary rises from betrayal and the Labyrinth is reborn. In a world shaped by gods, kings, and ancient […]
Until I was five years old, I lived in a big house with extensive grounds. It was so big we lost the cat for several days in its many bedrooms; so extensive, it had its own tennis courts, which in summer the gardener used to mark out ready for weekend garden parties. I have a […]
Scaled Vengeance Cassidy Vickers suspected the “Scales Killer” was a woman, and she was right. As a true crime podcast host, she was obsessed with serial killers, especially when brutal abusers started turning up dead with scales drawn and carved upon them. But after the killer’s capture, Vickers retreated to a quiet life as a […]
Ariadne: A Greek Tale of Labyrinths and Legacies For fans of Madeline Miller, a retelling of the tale of a bold, resilient woman from Greek myth who transforms heartbreak into fierce strength, weaving a new legend where sanctuary rises from betrayal and the Labyrinth is reborn. In a world shaped by gods, kings, and ancient […]
SHE WILL END THIS From USA Today bestselling author Colleen Coble and Rick Acker, the team behind I Think I Was Murdered. True crime writer Britt Olsen knows the minds of monsters. She never expected to share their DNA. Big Little Lies meets The Last Thing He Told Me. A simple DNA test shatters everything […]
“Can you make the main character a vampire? Vampires are so hot right now.” “Can you move the whole story to a magic school? That’s what’s selling at the moment.” These are actual excerpts from emails I received from publishers when I was shopping my debut novel around. Everyone tells you to write the book […]
“Can you make the main character a vampire? Vampires are so hot right now.” “Can you move the whole story to a magic school? That’s what’s selling at the moment.” These are actual excerpts from emails I received from publishers when I was shopping my debut novel around. Everyone tells you to write the book […]
Judy Penz Sheluk here. My mama used to say there were three sides to every story: Your side, my side, and the truth. For this post, my co-author, Amanda Capper, and I are sharing our personal backstory as it relates to the writing of A Fatal Affair: The Murder of Helen Grier. It was the […]
Nothing brings a reader’s suspension of disbelief to a screeching halt quite like a Victorian lady checking texts on her smartphone. Writers are an imaginative lot. We can craft murderers who leave cryptic clues, detectives who solve impossible crimes, Scottish islands where everyone harbors dark secrets, and romantic heroes who look like they’ve just stepped […]
I recently put together a panel of five women writers who’ve taken on subjects that are often considered controversial—especially when they involve female characters. True crime. Dysfunction. Murder. Human trafficking. Stillbirth. Abortion. Incarceration. Suicide. You name it, one of us had touched on it in our work. And all of us have come upon issues […]
I became passionate about reading at age eleven, shortly after my mother died, and books, particularly coming of age novels, became my solace and entertainment, as well as a source of information. While all my friends had mothers, I found plenty of orphaned or motherless girls in fiction and devoured novels such as in Anne […]
Scaled Vengeance Cassidy Vickers suspected the “Scales Killer” was a woman, and she was right. As a true crime podcast host, she was obsessed with serial killers, especially when brutal abusers started turning up dead with scales drawn and carved upon them. But after the killer’s capture, Vickers retreated to a quiet life as a […]
Ariadne: A Greek Tale of Labyrinths and Legacies For fans of Madeline Miller, a retelling of the tale of a bold, resilient woman from Greek myth who transforms heartbreak into fierce strength, weaving a new legend where sanctuary rises from betrayal and the Labyrinth is reborn. In a world shaped by gods, kings, and ancient […]
SHE WILL END THIS From USA Today bestselling author Colleen Coble and Rick Acker, the team behind I Think I Was Murdered. True crime writer Britt Olsen knows the minds of monsters. She never expected to share their DNA. Big Little Lies meets The Last Thing He Told Me. A simple DNA test shatters everything […]
THE THROW AWAYS Family loyalty, generational secrets, and three women who refuse to be underestimated: Greta Kelly’s THE THROWAWAYS (October 20, 2026, Sideways) is a darkly funny, high-stakes thriller about the complicated bonds between women, the legacies they inherit, and what happens when the past refuses to stay buried. “A well-written, twisty thriller with an […]
Character Interview with Vivienne Vivienne Underwood began life as a medieval swordswoman and vampire. She is the protagonist in the 2026 novel, The Sword of Vivienne, Book One of the Blood Sisters Chronicles. Stella: You were born in 1398. Vivienne: So they tell me. I don’t remember being born. Stella: What do you remember? What’s […]
By Carmen Amato “We’re going analog,” he said. “Analog?” I echoed. I was speaking to David Bruns, who with J.R. Olson co-writes the military-espionage Command and Control series. He explained that they’re skipping a digital-first playbook. Instead they’re leaning into an analog marketing strategy built around thematic speaking engagements, such as with veterans’ groups. It’s […]
Your dream finally came true. You wrote a book, you found a publisher who loved it as much as you do, and now, your book is in your hands. You’re officially a published author. After the unboxing and the champagne, you sit back and wait for the royalties to roll in… And that’s where the […]
By Carol Hoenig If you’re like me, you worked on your novel for a number of years before it’s ready for publication. Then once it is published there’s the feeling of accomplishment and celebration along with upcoming events and interviews. But about six months later you discover you’ve had your opportunity to get readers but […]
By Zelly Ruskin I thought the hard part was going to be finishing the book. Then I published. The image of an author is often one of someone chewing a pencil, with wads of papers beneath their chair. Maybe they’d be deep in thought, or frazzled—or both. In today’s world, they are sitting uninspired at […]
It’s impossible to forget the thrill of the moment when you come across a great idea for a novel. For me, the idea was a child with past life memories of being a soldier in Vietnam and the challenges this presented his mother as she looked for answers. As I wrote, this grew into alternating […]
Q&A with Literary Agent ERIN NIUMATA Folio Literary Management, VP and Literary Agent Erin Niumata has been in publishing for over three decades. She started as an editorial assistant at Simon and Schuster in the Touchstone/Fireside division for several years; then moved over to Harper Collins as an editor, and then she went to Avalon […]
Three years ago, I was a freelance writer with an extremely long Word document chilling on my hard drive. Today, those 98,000 words mark my shift from aspiring writer to fiction author: The Lost Night is coming out from Crown. My novel is a thriller about a woman uncovering the dark truths surrounding her best […]
A few days ago I did an interview and one of the questions was did I think having an agent was crucial in this business. The answer for me was a huge, resounding yes. My agent is Carly Watters at P.S. Literary Agency, and I literally wouldn’t be where I am now without her patient […]
A Twenty-Five-Question Interview Published as a Five Part Series Part One Part Two | Hosted by MM Finck | | Anonymously Answered By Agented Authors* with Varying Publishing Career Durations and Successes from Debut to Bestselling and Represented by Multiple Literary Agencies of Varying Sizes | QUESTION ELEVEN Historically, how many story ideas do you […]
A Twenty-Five-Question Interview Published as a Five Part Series. Read Part One HERE | Hosted by MM Finck | | Anonymously Answered By Agented Authors* with Varying Publishing Career Durations and Successes from Debut to Bestselling and Represented by Multiple Literary Agencies of Varying Sizes | QUESTION SIX Did your first agented manuscript sell? If […]
I never thought of myself as a writer, although I have always written in journals. They contain my thoughts and feelings, and are a shelter for musings, snippets of inspirational poetry and images of what I would like to manifest. Journaling was a lifeline when my husband Alby suddenly died; I filled 12 of them […]
In September 2016, I published Journaling Power: How to Create the Happy, Healthy Life YOU Want to Live. I had no idea then how much personal growth and transformation this book would inspire. Now, as I publish its tenth anniversary edition, I find myself reflecting not only on how far I‘ve come, but on the […]
I have long been fascinated by the West and, over time, by the human stories that bring its history to life. My interest began at age six in Mrs. Durham’s first-grade classroom in Hereford, Texas. She asked us to draw and color scenes from Palo Duro Canyon in the Texas Panhandle, where the renowned trail […]
I have published four books; my fourth book, Finding Independence in America: An International Student’s Journey from Malaysia to Medical School, was released on October 8, 2026. It is wonderful that it is published on the semiquincentennial of America. I have often admired reading stories that transport me into another world. In secondary school, I […]
The Other Side of Starting Over Bygones on Main, an antique store in the California mountain town of Suncrest, has been in the Bell Family for three generations. It attracts collectors and tourists alike and sells one-of-a-kind treasures and kitschy knickknacks in an expansive, labyrinthine storefront on Main Street. The longtime shopkeepers, Paul and Linea […]
At a children’s literature writer’s conference many years ago, the author speaking informed the audience that it took her seven years to land an agent and get published. What? There’s no way I can hang in there that long! But that’s exactly how long it took me; and an incredible amount of patience and persistence. […]
I grew up on a farm in rural Nebraska, in a family of horror and thriller readers. I spent countless hours as a child exploring the natural world and building my own stories from the landscape and found objects on the farm. All these objects found their way into my imagination. Icicles became monstrous teeth, […]
While revising stories for Animal Kingdom, my second collection, I turned to Brian Eno and Yoko Ono as patron saints of risk and ingenuity. I’m blessed with untreated ADHD, discovered in adulthood. That means, for me, the first burst of a story or a poem can feel like a high: anticipation and adrenaline leading to […]
Engineering a Love Story, Kathleen Reidy At the height of the boom, ambition is easy —love is the real gamble It’s the year 2000—dot-coms, Bush v. Gore, and sky-high San Francisco rents. But while the country swoons with irrational exuberance, Chelsea Lefevre’s life is deflating faster than a tech bubble. She’d had everything she thought she […]
Under an Indiana Sky Denise has never trusted her sister Angie’s boyfriend, Brock—not only because Angie pulls away from caring for their disabled mother, but because something about him doesn’t add up. Brock’s mother, Nora, has doubts of her own, even as she tries to begin a new chapter in her life. Meanwhile, Mercedes, a […]
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