debut author – The Debutante Ball

Interview with India Holton, author of THE WISTERIA SOCIETY OF LADY SCOUNDRELS

Wednesday, July 21, 2021

This week’s interview is with India Holton, a fellow Berkley author of Deb Lyn Liao Butler. We are so excited to have India here, as she’s written one zany historical romance/fantasy crossover book! Her debut, THE WISTERIA SOCIETY OF LADY SCOUNDRELS, is so much fun, and author Jen Deluca describes it best “…easily the most delightfully bonkers historical fantasy romance of 2021!” India is also a great person and supporter…

What Lyn Got Out of The Deb Ball

Tuesday, July 20, 2021

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I cannot believe that my book finally came out on July 6, 2021. It felt like I’d waited forever (2 years) from when I got my offer. The world has changed so much in these two years, but I am so grateful that THE TIGER MOM’S TALE is out in the world and I got to be a Deb for the class of 2021. It was a rough year, between…

Platform, support, wine, laughs: What I got out of being a Debutante

Monday, July 19, 2021

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It seems impossible, but our reign as Debs is coming to an end very soon. In a year of unprecedented turmoil politically, socially, economically, and domestically, being a part of the Debutante Ball has been an absolute bright spot for me. And as my sister Debs and I get ready to pass the torch to the new class, I’d like to share a few of my favorite things about being…

Interview with Vera Kurian, author of NEVER SAW ME COMING

Wednesday, June 16, 2021

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We are thrilled to welcome Vera Kurian to The Debutante Ball this week! NEVER SAW ME COMING is a debut thriller about Chloe Sevre, a young college student, and a psychopath, who has been recruited to take place in a secret university program to study psychopathic behavior. But when students at her university turn up dead, and when Chloe realizes she’s being targeted by the killer, Chloe and the other…

Interview with Brenda Peynado, author of THE ROCK EATERS

Thursday, June 3, 2021

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We are thrilled to welcome Brenda Peynado to The Debutante Ball this week! THE ROCK EATERS is a haunting and genre-bending collection of short stories that reflect our flawed world, and the incredible, terrifying and marvelous nature of humanity. Keep reading to learn about her journey to publication, her experience working in an emergency veterinary clinic, and her debut collection, THE ROCK EATERS. Share or comment below for a chance…

The Purge! (or, Getting that first draft out of your system)

Thursday, May 6, 2021

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Ernest Hemingway famously said all first drafts are garbage, except he used a way more *effluent* term instead of garbage. This is something that I’ve, at various times, thought was completely true, completely false, and now believe is somewhere in the middle. First drafts are your best effort at the time, and I hate to say anyone’s best effort at the time is no good. I’ve also read lots of…

Hemingway, Proust, and the Authorial Brand

Thursday, March 25, 2021

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Sooner or later every aspiring author is going to be told that they need to work on building their brand, improving their platform, increasing their presence. I grate at these terms. I don’t like to think of myself as a brand. I’m a person. I have a personality. I have interests and quirks and an aesthetic and a manner of speaking, and these things transmit through my writing and my…

Learning From Other Writers

Tuesday, February 2, 2021

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We’re supposed to be writing about our favorite craft writing books, blogs or podcasts. The truth is, I’ve never read a craft writing book (gasp!). I didn’t even know what a podcast was until last year. And while I love reading blogs, the only blog that I learned from was actually this one, The Debutante Ball (which is why I applied to be a Deb for this year, since I…

I left my heart in Corpus Christi

Thursday, January 14, 2021

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My fellow Debs and I are blogging this week about our favorite types of scenes to write, and it made me think of something George Saunders said once about how you should always write into your strengths. Saunders claims he’s not great at plot (methinks he’s being a touch humble), and so when he writes, he emphasizes his characters, or setting, or whatever, in order to make up for the…

Demons and Daydreams: How Hieronymus Bosch Got Me Writing

Thursday, December 10, 2020

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I had a really hard time choosing a major in college. I went from Business Administration to Retailing, to Fashion, and finally landed in Art History – a perfect place for people like me who love art, but lack all artistic ability. Art History was a really fun major, and I enjoyed my classes tremendously. We’d scrutinize paintings, paying attention to style, technique, and symbolism, and listen to stories our…

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