I’m back with a new episode of Authors & Audiences, and I’m thrilled to be talking to Dr. Paige Quiñones, an award-winning American poet and author, currently living in Ljubljana, Slovenia. Paige discusses her journey from pre-med to a poetry PhD and tells me about the creation of her debut collection "The Best Prey," which won the 2020 Pleiades Press Lena Miles Weaver Todd Prize for Poetry. She shares insights into her writing practice, on how much she loves teaching creative writing, on...

Katherine Center is a New York Times-bestselling author, and a Romantic with a capital R. Her first novel, written in the sixth grade was a fan fiction about Duran Duran, has sadly not yet been published, but she has gone on to publish ten other novels, two of which have been turned into movies – The Lost Husband and Happiness for Beginners. Both immediately went to the top of the Netflix charts almost as soon as they started streaming. Last week, Katherine’s 11th novel, The Rom-Commers...

July Duffy was a self-confessed frustrated creative writer-who-wasn’t-writing, when she challenged herself to write a story every day of May 2010. Other would-be writers heard what she was doing and asked to join in. And that was only the beginning. And today - May 1st, 2024 - Julie is launching the 15th year of StoryADayMay. Since then thousands of writers have joined Julie each May (and lately in September too), to prove to themselves that they can make creativity a priority in their lives...

[It turns out that I incorrectly posted this episode back in April as just a 42 seconds-long clip. Oops! - frustratingly, I have only just realized, but I have now replaced the short clip with the full episode - So sorry everyone!] Yesterday - on Saturday, April 27th, 2024 I helped celebrate Independent Bookstores Day by becoming one of the Guest Booksellers at Brazos Bookstore, my amazing local indie here in Houston TX at the invitation of Randi Null, the general manager. I'm not sure ...

Norah Woodsey, is an indie author, with three novels, THE CONTROL PROBLEM and LIFELESS, and the novella WHEN THE WAVE COLLAPSES. Her next book, THE STATES, will be out in April 2024. After short careers in finance and tech, Norah began writing novels featuring subjects of which she says she has “intense interest but not quite expertise”, such as history, physics, genetics, sociology and gender studies. She’s a fourth generation Brooklynite, though she’s now living over on the west coast. You...

Emily Bain Murphy is the author of two gorgeous magical fantasy books for young adults - THE DISAPPEARANCES and SPLINTERS OF SCARLET - and has this month published her first novel for adults, ENCHANTED HILL, with Union Square & Company, Emily has not only transitioned to writing for an adult audience, she's also turned to the world of a detective and a murder mystery. Having lived in the Far East as a youngster, and all over the US as an adult, Emily has finally settled in the St Lo...

Kathryn Casey is an award-winning journalist and the author of eleven true crime books and seven crime fiction novels. As a journalist, Casey has written more than a hundred national magazine articles and pieces for The Washington Post, the Boston Globe, and the Houston Chronicle. Her true crime story, DEADLY LITTLE SECRETS was made into a movie, SINS OF THE PREACHER, and based on her work for her book DELIVER US, she was featured in all three episodes of the Netflix series "Crime Scene: The ...

Today is November 1st, the opening day of National Novel Writing Month – or NaNoWriMo which takes place every November, as writers from all over the world come together, in person and online, to write 50,000 words in just 30 days. I'm a big fan of NaNoWriMo, because the book I drafted during NaNoWriMo 2010 ended up being published as WAIT FOR ME, my debut YA novel for Harper Collins in 2017. And I’m not the only NaNoWriMo participant who then got a Big Five publishing deal with that sam...

Welcome to the new season of Author and Audiences, and we're starting off with my recent in-person conversation with two incredible middle-grade authors - Dhonielle Clayton and P. Djèlí Clark- during Banned Books Week 2023 Dhonielle Clayton is an NYT bestselling YA and middle grade author. She is COO of the hugely influential non-profit We Need Diverse Books, and also the President and founder of Cake Creative and Electric Postcard Entertainment. Her new middle grade book, The Memory Thieves,...

I’m so delighted to be back here with you on your favorite podcast app, and I'm absolutely thrilled to kick off my second season, which I hope you will listen to, love and learn from along with me. This season, I’ll still be bringing you fantastic authors, ready to share with you their stories, their experiences and their advice to help you build your confidence in front of all your audiences – in person and virtually, and also help you develop your career as a professional author even furthe...

Season 2 of Authors & Audiences begins this week, so to make sure you don't miss any of the coming episodes, please subscribe to the show on your favorite podcast provider. Please Rate, Review, & Subscribe to Authors & Audiences! Sign up for my newsletter Music by Oleg Kirilkov - #We StandWithUkraine

PART THREE – THE SCHOOL VISITS SERIES – EXTENDED EPISODE Joy Preble is both a successful YA author, and the Children’s Programming Director at Brazos Bookstore in Houston. Her first picture book, Lost and Found Hanukkah, will be published in 2025 by Chronicle Books. Melissa Buron is one of Houston Independent School District’s Library Media Specialists. She is also an author and illustrator, and in 2016, created her own publishing company, Mab Media, a boutique publishing company sp...

PART TWO – THE SCHOOL VISITS SERIES – EXTENDED EPISODE Scott Reintgen is a young adult and middle grade author, who specializes in writing fantasy and science fiction. His tenth novel, A Door in the Dark, which came out this week from Simon & Schuster, is the first installment of his Waxwings series. His other series are the Nyxia Triad and Ashlords series, as well as the Talespinners series and the Celia Cleary series for middle graders. A former English and cre...

Deborah D.E.E.P. Mouton is an internationally-known writer, librettist, educator, activist and performer. She began as a slam poet, competing regularly in national poetry slams, and was even voted one of the top performance poets in the world. In 2017, she was the first African American to be appointed as Poet Laureate of Houston, In 2019 her poetry collection, Newsworthy, won huge acclaim, and her memoir, Black Chameleon, is out this week from Harold Holt. Deborah has also taken her poetry a...

To mark Black History Month, I talk this week to Lisa Stringfellow, whose debut middle-grade fantasy novel, A Comb of Wishes, was published last February by HarperCollins/Quill Tree Books. The paperback came out this month, and it tells the story of a 12 year old Black girl as she deals with loss and longing. A Comb of Wishes won Kweli Journal’s inaugural Color of Children’s Literature Manuscript Award in 2019, has received starred reviews, and just this week, Lisa learned that she is...

Bestselling author L.A. Mitchell published her first story—a time travel short called THE LOST HIGHWAY—in 2008. Since then, she has published over 33 works of fiction and non-fiction as a ghostwriter. Her works include memoir, business non-fiction, self-help, young adult, women’s fiction, and—most prevalently—romance. Spotlights have been turned recently on the craft of a ghostwriter following the publication of Prince Harry's autobiography, SPARE, by Penguin Random House. The prince readil...

Louise Marburg is the author of three short story collections – The Truth About Me, No Diving Allowed and her latest one, You have reached your Destination, which came out in November. Her stories have also been published in any number of highly respected literary journals and she’s won awards for them too. Louise’s new collection captures turning points in the lives of twelve women, and Louise invites us to face ourselves and our own life journeys with sympathy, humor, and courage. L...

Amelia McHenry is a Technical Writer and Business Analyst, meaning she examines business processes and produces manuals and timelines for them. She’s also a certified money, marketing and soul coach, and founder of Dodona Coaching. She offers her clients the support and encouragement they need to follow their dreams to fruition, and she also helps them make life fun. But, she does so by sharing with them her wisdom about how understanding your process and setting yourself goals can help you ...

Caroline shares her Holiday Survival Guide for authors and illustrators. Her five tips will help you as a writer or author so you can not just survive the holidays, but usefully make the most of them. That way you'll be ready to go into 2023 with a whole load of tools in your author tool box. Before that, however, Caroline shares her plans for Authors & Audiences in 2023. If you'd like to hear more of Caroline's news please sign up for her newsletter at www.carolineleechwrites.com. ...

Lizzy Dent is a bestselling women's fiction author. Her first novel for women – The Summer Job - came out in 2021 and her second , The Set Up, came out this year, in 2022. Before her move into adult fiction , Lizzy wrote a three Young Adult novels, under her real name, Rebecca Denton, all set in and around the music scene, called This Beats Perfect, A Secret Beat and The Punk Factor. Lizzy is a New Zealander, but she spent many years working in London, and these days lives i...