I’m so tickled to welcome Kimmery Martin back to the Deb Ball this week! Kimmery was part of the Deb Class of 2018, the same year I read her irresistible novel, The Queen of Hearts. Her publisher described that novel as a cross between Grey’s Anatomy and Big Little Lies, and I was obsessed with it. Now, Kimmery is back with her sophomore effort, another work of medical fiction, The…
Please welcome Ivelisse Rodriguez to the Ball this week! Ivelisse’s debut short story collection, Love War Stories, came out this July to much acclaim, and was named one of the most anticipated books of 2018 by Cosmopolitan, The Root, and Bitch Media. Bustle called it an “exceptional debut” and as soon as I read the description of the book (and saw it was published by Feminist Press, one of my favorite small presses!),…
I am so excited to welcome Terese Marie Mailhot to the blog today, and introduce her and her searingly beautiful memoir to the Deb community! About Heart Berries: Heart Berries is a powerful, poetic memoir of a woman’s coming of age on the Seabird Island Indian Reservation in the Pacific Northwest. Having survived a profoundly dysfunctional upbringing only to find herself hospitalized and facing a dual diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder…
I’m so excited to introduce you to the talented Susan Bishop Crispell! I first met Susan through Pitch Wars. She was one of my formidable mentors, and we soon became fast friends. Susan’s first book, THE SECRET INGREDIENT OF WISHES released in September 2016, and it was a delightful love story with just a dash of magic. Susan writes with a very clear eye toward relationships, the issues that women…
I am excited to introduce our readers to one of my favorite memoirs of 2017, TRAVELING WITH GHOSTS: A MEMOIR OF LOVE AND LOSS. It’s a heartbreakingly beautiful memoir, and Shannon Leone Fowler, whom I met in a Facebook binders group, is a strong and resilient woman who always has encouraging words for emerging writers. About TRAVELING WITH GHOSTS: In 2002, Shannon Leone Fowler was a blissful twenty-eight-year-old marine…
I’m so excited to host the brilliant and funny Erin Judge on the Debutante Ball this week! Erin Judge is a comedian, writer, actor, and producer based in Los Angeles. Erin’s debut novel, Vow of Celibacy, won Best Fiction at the Bi Book Awards, and was named a Must-Read Indie Press Book by BookRiot. Erin started out doing stand-up at the best comedy club in the world: the Comedy Studio in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Since…
I’m so excited to introduce you to Heather Webb and Hazel Gaynor! I have been a fan of both of these writers for several years now, and to have them collaborate on a book together is every historical fiction reader’s fantasy. Their book LAST CHRISTMAS IN PARIS has been getting rave reviews: Gaynor and Webb’s first collaboration is beautifully told […] the authors fully capture the characters’ voices as each…
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…
