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Interview with Suzanne Nugent, author of Brunch and Other Obligations

Saturday, May 9, 2020
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I am excited to introduce our guest author for this week, Suzanne Nugent! Suzanne Nugent is a writer committed to exploring women’s lives and relationships through poignant comedy and drama. She holds a dual degree in journalism and film from UMass Amherst and studied screenwriting at UCLA. She was shortlisted for the prestigious Academy Nicholl Fellowship in Screenwriting and has received accolades from the Denver Film Festival and the San…

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Coming of Age and The Goddess Twins

Thursday, May 7, 2020
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I think I was in junior high when I first heard the term ‘coming of age’ but I remember it hitting me hard in the gut. That was what I was obsessed with reading bout! That’s what described, en mass, the type of books I loved the most, especially when they involved magic in some way. Growing up there was one type of story that could fulfill my own ‘coming…

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Interview with Alexis Marie Chute, author of Inside the Sun

Inside the Sun Cover Art
Saturday, May 2, 2020
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I am excited to introduce our guest author for this week, Alexis Marie Chute. Alexis is an award-winning author, artist, photographer, art curator, filmmaker, and public speaker. She has received over 40 noteworthy distinctions for her visual and literary work. Chute’s bestselling memoir, Expecting Sunshine: A Journey of Grief, Healing and Pregnancy After Loss, was a top Kirkus title of 2017 and received a plethora of other literary distinctions. The…

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Interview with Author Sarah DiGregorio (and Book Giveaway!)

As someone who dealt with many complications getting pregnant, I was excited to talk to Sarah DiGregorio, who writes about premature birth in her book  EARLY: An Intimate History of Premature Birth and What It Teaches Us About Being Human (Harper). In this reported memoir, the freelance journalist, who covers both healthcare and food for many publications (including The New York Times, The Washington Post, Slate, The Wall Street Journal, and Catapult)…

Saturday, March 21, 2020
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How to write when you’re not writing

Wednesday, December 18, 2019
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In 2009, I left my job as a high school English teacher and ran right smack dab into the Great Recession. It hurt. Nobody was hiring. I couldn’t get an interview, much less a job. After a few months of false starts and throwing myself at the wall, I harnessed what was left of my entrepreneurial spirit and started a wedding videography business. Wedding videography was something I had done…

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In the Face of Illness, Balancing Writing, Work, and Life

Monday, September 23, 2019
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On May 1st I entered a diagnostic imaging center to undergo a biopsy. For the procedure, I had to lie face down in a tunnel MRI machine and not move for close to two hours. I was rolled in and out of the tunnel throughout the procedure and had to endure the obnoxiously loud screeching and honking noises of the machine’s magnetic fields as well as the whirring motor of…

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There is no “normal.”

Wednesday, September 18, 2019
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Before I begin, let’s get something straight: there’s no “typical path to publication.” There’s only what happens to you, when it happens to you. Remember, this is a business where the only effective marketing advice are dollar signs and shrug emojis. That said, my journey is actually fairly typical. I call publishing “the eye of Sauron,” because you’ll find yourself living through long stretches of time where nothing much is…

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My path to publication required the right shoes

Monday, September 16, 2019
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I arrived at the book fair exhibit hall of AWP, the Association of Writers and Writing Programs conference hopeful that I’d be able to complete my mission: to convince the editors at a small press that they should publish my novel. After a six-hour train ride that took me several states away. I said a silent prayer and slipped into the comfortable shoes I had packed, my burgundy, suede Crocs….

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Introducing Amy Klein: Author of THE TRYING GAME

Friday, August 30, 2019
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I’m beyond thrilled to introduce you all to your new Friday blogger, Amy Klein! Amy is the author of The Trying Game: How to Get Pregnant and Get Through Fertility Treastment Without Losing your Mind (Ballantine, 2020) based on her New York Times Fertility Diary column. As soon as I read her application, I knew I wanted her to be on the Debutante Ball, and now I’ve got my wish. It…

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Year’s End

Friday, August 23, 2019
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  In many ways my debut year was full of surprises. I received so many wonderful gifts that I hadn’t planned on—a blurb from one of the writers I most admire, positive reviews in outlets that still terrify me (can you say Kirkus, anyone?), pictures of my book purchased by friends old and new, near and far. I was truly surprised by how many friends not only bought the book…

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