This week, we are so thrilled to welcome Jessica Strawser to the Debutante Ball! Jessica has joined us here before, when her book Not That I Could Tell came out last year, and we are so excited to have her back to talk about her newest novel Forget You Know Me. Molly and Liza have always been enviably close. Even after Molly married Daniel, the couple considered Liza an honorary…
There are five of us here at the Debutante Ball, each with separate publication dates, which means we don’t get to just celebrate our publication just once. We get to celebrate it FIVE TIMES. And what’s better than one? Five, obviously. It’s like waking up the day after your birthday to find out it’s your birthday all over again! First there was Devi Laskar, who kicked us off last month…
This week, I’m so excited to welcome Toni Kirkpatrick to the Debutante Ball! I first conducted this interview in 2016 back when I was unagented and unpublished, and Toni graciously agreed to answer my eager questions. Then, last summer, I finally had the privilege of meeting Toni when she hosted a writing workshop near me. At the time, I was weeks away from starting the editing process with my publisher…
Creating believable characters that jump off the page is probably one of the most difficult things for fiction writers to do. Consulting personality tests can help. A personality test can help you determine what guides your character’s inner most motives and thoughts. It can help you streamline your character’s tendencies, fears, and desires. It doesn’t matter if you’re using a Myers-Briggs test, an enneagram test, or a horoscope chart. All…
…..And one foot in Slytherin. Definitely wish I could converse with snakes. Wish I could harness the love and interest I have for TV-binging and movie watching and channel it somehow in to a love of sitting at my desk and writing. Don’t misunderstand: I love to write. I love being in the world of my stories. I just wish I could do it in a less boring and less…
As I’ve mentioned a few times before, The Dream Peddler was directly inspired by my love of reading and my adolescent obsession with Emily of New Moon. There is nothing greater for me than reading the work of authors I love in order to be inspired. If I’m in a bit of writing doldrums, I’ll just pick up a book (a fabulous literary one, usually) and in no time…
Many writers will tell you not to wait for inspiration — what really makes a writer is discipline. You need to wake up at a certain time each day and commit that pen to paper. But even though a novel is a slow journey that you complete only by dedicating yourself to the task, there is definitely a little bit of magic involved. For me, inspiration comes in several forms. I’ve…
I may have talked about this before, and so I apologize if I am repeating myself. I still believe that art saved my writing life. The first year after the 2010 police raid on my home was a tumultuous time and I spent the year corralling the family and weathering the media storm. About a month after my husband had been dismissed from his job, a good friend approached me…
This wonderful week, as we inch closer and closer to spring, we are welcoming you, our fantastic readers, to take the Deb Ball interview! Here’s how it will work: We’ve pasted some of the typical questions we usually ask our guests below. In the comments, we invite you to answer any–or all!–of them so that we can get to know you better! The Debutante Ball is all about community. Writers…
Thank you so much to yesterday’s guest, Bushra Rehman! If you haven’t already, enter the #DebBallGiveaway to win a copy of Marianna’s Beauty Salon. You can enter by sharing our post on Facebook and/or retweeting the following tweet (make sure you follow @DebutanteBall on Twitter too!): “Don’t Compromise.” Bushra Rehman on the revolutionary power of writing + GIVEAWAY of Marianna’s Beauty Salon. RT to enter the giveaway! https://t.co/rGxB5DNHZl pic.twitter.com/mf6ob9LCh3 — The…
