It occurred to me recently that many folks who read this blog don’t know its history. It was started in 2007 by five women who had their first books coming out, and for a year, they blogged together about their experiences. Then, after all their books were published, they decided to do a rather unusual thing in the blogoverse: they picked five more women debut authors, and entrusted their blog…
We are thrilled to welcome back a former Deb, Kelly Harms, whose second novel, THE MATCHMAKER OF MINNOW BAY, follows in the delightful footsteps of her debut, THE GOODLUCK GIRLS OF SHIPWRECK LANE. Frustrated painter Lily Stewart can’t pay the rent on her apartment, so she packs up to leave…and, in the back of a drawer, finds a letter telling her her impulsive Las Vegas marriage of ten years before…
Oh, this one’s easy. What did I love best about my year as a debut novelist? I PUBLISHED A GODDAMNED NOVEL, PEOPLE!! Okay, I won’t just exit stage right. Even though that was what I loved best, there were other things I also loved. Things like: Getting to know my fellow Debutantes. Other than Louise, whom I’d “met” on the AgentQuery website, all of these women were strangers to me. One year…
2016 has been a delicious year for reading, a state of perfect bibliophilic equilibrium wherein the “read” stack and the “to-be-read” stack have stayed even most of the time. Here are my favorites of the year so far, with helpful links to Indiebound so you can buy them at a bookstore near you: (1) DEAR COMMITTEE MEMBERS, Julie Schumacher An epistolary novel that consists of a series of hilarious and…
Over the past year, we five Debutantes have cheered each other on, cheered each other up, and bumbled our way through the publication process together. So it’s no surprise that after eleven months of this, we’ve come to know each other very well. But there are also a bunch of other women we’ve gotten to know along the way, shadow women who live in different centuries and places, and who face…
When I was growing up, I read widely. Fantasy, historical, the classics, adventure, you name it, I read it all. But two of my favorite genres were thrillers and romance. I loved the male-dominated, plot-propelled, chase/spy books of the 1980s by people like Robert Ludlum and Ken Follett. THE BOURNE IDENTITY? Oh, yes. EYE OF THE NEEDLE? For sure. I tore through those pulpy paperbacks like candy, hanging on every…
How odd it feels to sit in the Guest Author chair! Although I have to say, it is quite plush and the fabric matches my outfit, so I’m going to squish my butt into the cushion and dig in to my fellow Debs’ questions about THE LOST GIRLS: After reading LOST GIRLS I found myself thinking about the complicated give and take that exists in most sibling relationships. Did you…
When I woke up yesterday morning here on the West Coast, I looked at my watch and laughed out loud. My book had already been for sale for thirty minutes on the East Coast. It had happened just as I’d always dreamed it would: I literally woke up one day a published author. I lay there for a few minutes, savoring the first hour of my book’s life in the…
Wow, this topic. Seriously — “Fun Facts About Us”? What incredibly bad timing. We’re in the middle of the Republican National Convention, a four-day, red-white-and-blue extravaganza designed to stroke the ego of the world’s biggest narcissist. How can five profoundly insecure newbie authors possibly compete with that level of self absorption?? Well. I guess if any of us can do it, it’s probably me. So here goes. Seven fun, self…
We’re starting to get applications for the five spots we’ll soon vacate here on the Ball, so this seemed an appropriate time for a cautionary tale or two for our successors, and anyone else on the cusp of their debut novel year. The five of us largely blundered our way through this experience like drunkards in the dark, relying on internet forums and obsessive Googling to figure out how this…
