Contest

Interview with Lillian Li and Giveaway for NUMBER ONE CHINESE RESTAURANT

Saturday, June 1, 2019
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    I’m so excited to be hosting author Lillian Li this week! Lillian Li is the author of the novel Number One Chinese Restaurant, which was longlisted for the Women’s Prize, the Center for Fiction’s First Novel Prize, and an NPR Best Book of 2018. Her work has been published in the New York Times, Granta, One Story, Bon Appetit, and Jezebel. Originally from the D.C. metro area, she lives…

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Interview with Roselle Lim and Giveaway for Natalie Tan’s Book of Luck and Fortune

Saturday, May 25, 2019
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I could not be more thrilled to be hosting author Roselle Lim this week on the Ball! I’ve been waiting many months for her magical debut, Natalie Tan’s Book of Luck and Fortune, to come out, and now it’s almost here! Roselle Lim was born in the Philippines and immigrated to Canada as a child. She lived in north Scarborough in a diverse, Asian neighbourhood. She found her love of…

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Sam Hawke Interview + City of Lies Giveaway

Saturday, October 20, 2018
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I’m so excited to welcome Sam Hawke to the Debutante Ball this week! Sam is a delightful human being who writes epic fantasy in Canberra, Australia, where she lives with her two dogs, two small ninjas, and her husband. Her debut novel CITY OF LIES, the first in the Poison Wars series from Tor, came out just this past July to critical acclaim and lots of excited hand wavings. It’s been…

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Interview with Rebecca Fish Ewan and GIVEAWAY

Saturday, July 28, 2018
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I’m so excited to introduce everyone to Rebecca Fish Ewan, author of By the Forces of Gravity. I met Rebecca last year at Hippocamp, Hippocampus Magazine’s annual Creative Nonfiction conference. She approached me after my breakout session on Experimental Writing and talked about her work, which combined drawings and free verse. It was exactly the type of thing I wanted to add to my presentation, so I was extremely grateful! She even…

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Happy Birthday, FROM UNSEEN FIRE!

Tuesday, April 17, 2018
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  I love that my normal posting day is Tuesday, which is the day new books come into the world. (No one knows why this is, not even Judy Blume. I know this because I was in her bookstore on a Tuesday when they were shelving new books and I asked Judy Blume why books always release on Tuesdays and she said that she had no idea. Investigative journalism at…

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Interview with Laurie Jean Cannady + Giveaway for CRAVE

Saturday, November 11, 2017
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I first met Dr. Laurie Jean Cannady at HippoCamp—Hippocampus Magazine’s 2016 writer’s conference. I have to admit that I was so awestruck to meet her in person that I didn’t talk to her for more than 96 seconds.  Writers are my rockstars, and I’m easily intimidated. It’s not that she was that terror-inducing as a person, it’s just that I loved her book, CRAVE: SOJOURN OF A HUNGRY SOUL so…

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Interview + Giveaway with Thrity Umrigar, Author of EVERYBODY’S SON

Saturday, November 4, 2017
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I was first introduced to Dr. Thrity Umrigar’s work last spring when she and I both had the honor of having pieces we wrote performed in Lit Cleveland’s staged reading, Crossing Borders: Immigrant Narratives, a part of Cleveland State University’s Cleveland Humanities Festival. Intrigued to discover that my local writing community included a writer of her caliber, I ordered her latest novel, EVERYBODY’S SON. Umrigar’s book is a complex and…

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Interview + Giveaway with Courtney Maum, Author of TOUCH

Saturday, September 30, 2017
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I’m pleased to introduce everyone to one of the books I’ve talked the most about this summer, and by talking I mean to real people in real conversations in physical locations—not online. Just today I was talking about dog rentals, the run-pee app that tells you the best times during a movie to go to the bathroom, and self driving cars that come equipped with coffee machines. On the other…

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Interview with Jenni L. Walsh + #DebBallGiveaway of BECOMING BONNIE

Saturday, May 13, 2017
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You’ve heard the news, but I’ll say it one last time: BECOMING BONNIE, our fifth and final 2017 Debutante Ball book, launched this week!! BECOMING BONNIE is the untold story of how Bonnelyn Parker became half of the infamous duo, Bonnie & Clyde. Here’s my favorite review of Jenni’s excellent novel: “A dazzling and compulsively-readable adventure of self-discovery, with a voice both singular and irresistible. I dare you not to fall in…

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Interview with Thelma Adams + #DebBallGiveaway of THE LAST WOMAN STANDING

Saturday, November 12, 2016
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This week I had the privilege of interviewing Thelma Adams, the author of the historical novel The Last Woman Standing. It is the first biographical novel about Josephine Marcus, Wyatt Earp’s wife, the gutsy Jewish beauty who captured the lawman’s heart in 1981, the year he fought the legendary gunfight at the OK Corral. NY Times bestselling author Caroline Leavitt says, The Last Woman is “a wild west story made even…

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