Episode 133: Special Fall Episode Exciting 2023 Debuts!

Hi this is Lainey Cameron and this is always one of my favorite episodes when we invite exciting debut authors and we worked really hard to select six debut authors for you that you are going to have so much fun loving hearing and learning about their books. Let me tell you the six authors we have today and then Ashley is going to kick off with our first three. So today we have Anju Gattani, Lynne Golodner, Delise Torres, Gabi Coatsworth, Noreen Mughees and Logan Steiner.

I am so excited because like I said, we work really hard to select our debuts. We get hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of submissions for each season. And it's a big deal when we go through and we look at the quality and all the proof points of someone's book and we say yes, that's an author even though it's their debut. We really really want to have them on and talk to them now and not wait to live a few more books under their belts. With that I will let Ashley introduce our first three writers.

Ashley Hasty 1:03

Thank you Lainey. I am very happy to kick off this exciting 2023 debuts episode. I have Anju with me, author of DYNASTIES, Book 1, Winds Of Fire Series, Lynne, author Woman Of Valor and Delise, author of One Tough Cookie, we're gonna have each author tell us a bit about their novel. So Anju, can you start for us?

Anju Gattani 1:29

Thank you, Ashley. i'm just so excited to be here on the show with these amazing, fabulous authors. DYNASTIES, Book 1, Winds Of Fire Series, it's been a labor of love. The series in a nutshell is one woman's journey against all odds in modern day India, toward justice and self empowerment. The series has been a work of 20 years plus still going on and dynasties is the pillar book. It's the foundation for the entire series to come. And it focuses and homes on the story of Sheetal Prasad, who upholds family honor and tradition. She thought of forsaking the man she loves and marrying millionaire Rakesh Dhanraj, her world splinters into a web of lies, deceit and betrayal. And she thought must stand up against the family, the two family dynasties in order to protect her infant son from the family's tyranny. And that's just the pillar of the foundation to the entire Winds of Fire series. And there are many, many more books to come. And it's a multi-award nominated book. So I'm excited to share that with all of you and also be International Book of the Month picked by the Alpha queen, and an NIH finalist.

Ashley Hasty 2:34

Thank you and. Delise, how about you? Will you tell us about your debut novel?

Delise Torres 2:38

My debut novel is called One Tough Cookie. And it is woody women's fiction, that cookie company returning a Latina feedback for the protagonist Karina; she's an unlikable female character. And she thinks Love makes you weak, fall in love. And then she meets the new mechanic who makes her feel things she shouldn't be feeling or hates that she's feeling. And the book is ultimately about respecting other people's choices and accepting others' differences.

Ashley Hasty 3:13

Thank you, Denise. And Lynne, how about you tell us about your debut novel?

Lynne Golodner 3:18

Yes, thank you so much for having me. I'm so honored to be here with these great authors. Woman of Valor is my debut novel. And it's the story of a young woman, Sally who moves to Chicago, when she chooses to become orthodox in Judaism and she loves her life. She's married to the love of her life, they have three kids, everything is going well. And then one of her children is abused at his school. And she and her husband respond differently. They're both outraged, but they want to take different actions. So it causes a rift in their marriage for the first time. And that's right around the time that her ex boyfriend sneaks back into her life on Facebook, and says he really regrets letting her go. And there's all kinds of turmoil. So it's a book about infidelity, about love, about community. But mostly it's about figuring out who you want to be, carving out an identity you can live with and that you can love while still belonging to a community where you feel at home. That's what this book is about.

Ashley Hasty 4:11

Thank you. This is a fantastic group. We have a good variety, diverse characters, cultures, locations, themes. This is going to be fun. Thank you all for joining me. I would like you to describe your inspiration. Where did that original spark or idea come from that led you to want to spend time sweating tears to write a novel about the story? Dilys let's start with you.

Delise Torres 4:38

Well, the idea for one off cookies started with a dream. I dreamt it was just a moment between Kareena Iam who is the protagonist and they were just talking and that inspired me to write a scene and in the book in the dream that we're talking outside the company that I used to work at. I am a food scientist. And I used to work as a Quality Assurance Manager in a great Sherry manufacturing plant. In the dream, they were talking there and I knew Okay, she would work in the production area and be a mechanic because that's how the company was set up. And then I decided to not do it at that exact company. I created my own fictional cookie company. And that's basically and the whole lot just came after this dream.

Ashley Hasty 5:35

When you said it started with a dream, I was thinking like a dream to write a book. For all you drums. Lynne, how about you next? So what's your initial spark?

Lynne Golodner 5:48

Yeah. I've always been a writer. And I actually had eight books published before this novel, they were nonfiction and poetry, I always wanted to write fiction. And I tried actually, this is not the first novel I've written, the first novel has been published. This one started in 2011. And I had the idea for the character Sally, whose main character I spent 10 years as an Orthodox Jew. And I was about three years out of that community, so I had decided to leave it. But I started writing and I got about 60 pages in and stalled because I hadn't really thought through what it was going to be. So I put it aside for 10 years, and I was raising kids, and I have a business and all these things. And in 2021, I said, Okay, now I really think my writing skills are at the point where I can get serious about fiction. And I went back to the characters, and I said, well, the bones of the story are decent, but the story itself needs to totally change. And that's when I got really serious, and I started being deliberate and how I was writing. And so I wanted a positive view of Orthodox Judaism, I felt that there were so many TV shows, movies, books out there about religious people who don't like their community and decide to leave it. The world didn't need another one. So I wanted to show the beautiful sides of it. Even though I chose to leave the community, there are so many things I really appreciate about it. I wanted to show a passionate marriage, I wanted to show positive friendships, but also the challenges that real people find in their community, whether it's religious or not, and how you make a decision to face them to meet the challenges and to really provide an identity that you can live with. And so in 2021, I got really serious about it, I now got a first draft, I went through revision after revision, then I hired a developmental editor, went through another couple revisions, had some beta readers and finally felt like this story. I just loved it. And I felt like it came together. It also taught me that I need to plot out my novels. So my next novel, which is in revisions, now, I spent a lot of time plotting, because I didn't do that with Woman of Valor. And I really felt like I didn't know where I was going. So I learned a lot from the process.

Ashley Hasty 7:47

I love that you mentioned that this is not the first book that you wrote. I think a lot of people who want to write a novel think that the first novel they write will be the first novel they publish, and you release it as your debut novel, The first novel you've ever written. No, it is oh, witness for one of you. So thank you, Lynne. And you tell us about your inspiration, that original spark or idea.

Anju Gattani 8:10

My story is very similar to Delise it came from a dream that was a daydream sort of just 40 minutes before I had to pick up Ben, five and a half years old, from the bus stop. We had just moved from Singapore to New Jersey, the landscape of geography, everything about this country was new for me. And I took a nap which I was lucky to get when you're raising two small kids, in that I snapped out of the daydream. And my palms were sweaty, my heart was racing, I didn't understand whether what I had just seen was a dream, or whether it was a story or a movie, or something I'd read before. But it was just so riveting, I couldn't understand what I was dealing with. And I tried to knock that out of my system. But having been an international freelance journalist for 10 years, I knew this was not a short fiction, then began the journey of Who are these characters? Why are they running? Who are they running away from? Where are they running to? Why are their lives in jeopardy? And what is the cause of the jeopardy? Working backwards from that scene? I realize now after 20 plus years of rewrites and writes and everything, but I think in the first 10 years, I figured out sort of pretty much in the first three, four years, that seed was the end of what is now book two in this five or six book series. And that book two, Once and For All, is coming out in January of 2024. It's called Once and For All. And so, that riveting scene I had to work backwards from to understand and then work my way forwards if that makes any sense at all.

Ashley Hasty 9:38

Absolutely. But I am so intrigued that even your inspiration or spark, that original idea runs the spectrum from an actual daydream to personal experiences isn't so interesting to me. For those who are aspiring authors, what is your best advice for authors? Lynne, let's start with you.

Lynne Golodner 10:02

Well, I teach a lot of writing and lead writers retreats. And one of the things that I say again and again, that you need to write, you need to create the habit of practicing it, I spent so many years, right, say, I'll write when the inspiration hits me. I didn't write that often when I did that. So it's really helped to carve out a schedule for myself. And then it sort of feeds itself and really encourages more and more content and quality content, I'm happy doing it. But the other thing I would say, is to surround yourself with people who believe in you as a writer, because there's a lot of imposter syndrome, there's a lot of lack of confidence, even after people have books out. And so if you can connect with other writers in your genre, if you can have a little writing workshop or group near your home, or virtually, or whatever it is, um, the more you surround yourself with a community of writers, the more you'll believe that you can do this. And I think that's super important to have that support.

Ashley Hasty 10:58

Yeah, a few of us were at the Writers Conference this past weekend. And it is one of the best communities I have to agree. Anju, what about you? What is your best writing advice?

Anju Gattani 11:11

My best writing advice comes from personal experience. I also am an instructor, fiction writer, and I love to teach the craft of fiction writing. So what I've learned in the process is there's a lot of write what you know, and stick to what you know, but I would say start with what you know, and then let your imagination and experience take over and guide you forward. Because like Lynne said, You need to find your tribe, you need to find people who are going to be positive and understand this very, very abstract concept of writing a novel, nevermind characters, and plots and conflict which exist in your head and are not even real to begin with. So you need to find your tribe who can guide you, who can hold your hand and say, it's all fine. It's all good. I mean, we can help you dissect the problems, but start in familiar territory, and then let the waters of your story just lead you forward and go with the flow.

Ashley Hasty 12:01

That's beautiful. Delise, what about you, your best writing advice?

Delise Torres 12:05

My best writing advice is to be open to criticism. For me, before I got the offer for a book deal, the publisher wanted me to change the food safety aspect of my book and wanted it to be a bakery instead of a company. And I was like, No way, not changing that. But I'm willing to change a few things. And I worked and I created an alpha and what I would be willing to change. And since they had there was like this misunderstanding about being a food scientist, which I get a lot of what is a food scientist, then I added that element to the book kind of explaining. And thankfully, they said they gave me an offer. I mentor, sometimes, and I see that writers are really close, and they don't want to change. If you say you should change something big, then they're really kind of resistant to that. And I think you shouldn't change if it doesn't sound right. But you'd be open to change something. And maybe you don't change it exactly like the other person suggests, but you change it in a way that is a middle ground. And I think if you want to be traditionally published, you need to be able to adapt and change and not be so tied to the original story. And I'm glad that I did the changes because I think the book is much better for you.

Ashley Hasty 13:38

I love that by starting with putting in the work and the time and creating the writing habit, finding your community, starting with what you know, but then allowing your imagination to lead you the rest of the way. And then finally, being open to criticism was like such a perfect circle of advice from beginning to end a person's writing journey. Is there anything else you would like to add before we wrap up our part of our exciting 2023 debuts?

Anju Gattani 14:07

Now I just like to add something really quick. Don't let anyone tell you, you can't write. Your story is yours to tell, and if you don't tell your story, who else is going to come in and tell your story? You're the best advocate for your story and your characters. So speak your heart out and bleed on the page just like I do.

Lynne Golodner 14:29

I would follow that. That's great advice Anju. I think, in line with what you said, if you're writing to please somebody else, you may not be writing your best story. And so write the story you want to read, write the story that you're going to fall in love with because your heart and soul will be in it and then people are going to love it so it'll be so much stronger.

Delise Torres 14:47

Yeah, just stay true to your story. For example, my novel has an unlikable character and many people cheat unlikable throughout the whole process and Am I adjusted, but that's who she is. And I just couldn't, I thought it felt like a betrayal. And so it's like, that's her and I keep getting this criticism, but it doesn't matter, like I'm proud of the character. Be open but also stay true to the story you want to tell.

Ashley Hasty 15:18

Anju, Delise, Lynne, thank you all so much for joining me for this part of our exciting 2023 debuts and congratulations, you have a debut novel. It's so exciting.

Lynne Golodner 15:30

Thank you so much, Ashley. This is such an honor. Really. Thank you for having us here. Thank you.

Lainey Cameron 15:39

Thanks, Ashley. That was fabulous. And I am so excited because I get to introduce you to three more debut authors and novels. And very different from the three we just heard, which is so exciting. I love the diversity of different types of stories that I'm going to be chatting with you along with Logan Steiner, Gabi Coatsworth. And I am going to mess up your name. I know Noreen, so I apologize in advance. Noreen Mughees. Why don't you say it for me so that everybody hears the correct pronunciation.

Noreen Mughees 16:06

It's Noreen Mughees.

Lainey Cameron 16:08

Thank you. I apologize. I tried. I actually used to live in France. And Noreen just explained to me that you kind of roll the R as if you're almost in French or German. And I have never been able to roll my R like I've spent my life trying to roll my R properly. And I already know I can't do it. So I apologize that it's a lifelong quest. And it's funny because I lived in France and I still can't do it. Let's jump into talking about these three fabulous novels. And let's just start with each novelist telling us a little about their book and Noreen since we're talking with you. First, let's kick off with yours.

Noreen Mughees 16:37

Hi, I'm Noreen Mughees. And my book The Mis-Arrangement of Sana Saeed is rom- com romance that borders on women's fiction about it's a loose retelling of Persuasion. And it's about this girl who has responsibilities of her younger brother, and agrees to get set up by her family. And lo and behold, the day that she agrees her old ex best friend turned now enemy turns back in town and messes up her best laid plans. So that's the short version of my book, but it is a loose retelling of Persuasion with a little bit of Romeo and Juliet.

Lainey Cameron 17:20

Oh, I love that. It sounds so fun. I can't wait to read it. Gabi, why don't we have you tell us a little bit more about A Beginner's Guide To Starting Over?

Gabi Coatsworth 17:28

Happy too. Yes, my heroine, my main character, is a middle aged widow who owns a bookstore and has a wicked landlord who is trying to put her out of business by raising the rent too high. And he's also trying to date her online by putting up fake photos of himself and her friends wanting to start dating again. So she's got these two problems. And as she's looking at the few photos of men online, a voice behind her says “You can't go out with that guy, he's at least 70”. And she turns around and it's the ghost of her dead husband. And he says that he's there to help her find a replacement who's not quite as good as him, but will do. And after she's rolled her eyes, he starts to give her advice and he is terrible at picking people for her. So, of course, eventually she's kind of have to figure out how to sort out her life herself with a little help from her friends.

Lainey Cameron 18:24

I love this. We've got two very different storylines that are kind of like romantic elements in women's fiction, but coming from two very different places. Logan, tells us a little bit more about yours.

Logan Steiner 18:35

My debut novel After Anne is historical fiction. It is based on the life story of L.M. Montgomery who wrote Anne Of Green Gables, as well as 20 other novels. She became world famous in her time when she grew up in rural Canada and is still one of the best selling authors in all of Canada. And it's really a story of success against the odds. It's a story of a little girl who had writing dreams, lost her mom young, was raised by grandparents who didn't support her dreams and heard the voice of a character in her head that she couldn't shed and persisted through a lot of rejection. As the title suggests, though, it is also a story of what came after the dream came true. What came after the tremendous success, almost instant success of Anne of Green Gables and world fame that followed shortly thereafter, including the impact of that success in theme on L.M. Montgomery went by Maude, on Maude’s marriage to a minister and her balancing of becoming a mother and writing and marriage as well as deciding what parts of herself to make public versus keep private when she became a public figure, and figuring out how to balance the demands of the readership. So, the bulk of the focus of the book is what came after that success.

Lainey Cameron 20:00

I love that. And I've only had the chance to read one of these three so far. So after this, I'm gonna go get the other two. Let’s transition into talking about a little bit of the inspiration. So, Gabi, let's start with you, you decided to put this husband who's passed away and make him a real character in the book. And I love the humor in it. But like, where on earth? What was the spark of inspiration for this story?

Gabi Coatsworth 20:23

Okay, so I am a widow, about like, two years after my husband died, my friends started saying to me, so you know, when you're going to start dating again, there's online, there's this, there's that? And I'm like, no, please. You know, men are such hard workers, not now. And the second question was, you know, if you don't believe in heaven, what you think happens to people. And my real belief about this is that you carry the people you love with you all the time. And I know many people who talk to the people that they love in their heads, and I can still (my sister died too), and I can still hear her voice saying, you really don't look good in that color, you know, which is ridiculous, because this was a long time ago, but she's still with me. And so what I did in this book was to take that conversation in a person's head and just take it one step further. So that, the person they love is actually there. And because you know, there have been movies like this, where ghostly presences turn up and can be funny, and, and so on. That was one inspiration for me. That was the ghostly part. And then I've always liked bookshops. Of course, who doesn't? And I've always thought it would be a great idea to own one. And then I thought, well, but what if things start to go wrong? That was how I ended up with the story. I was just writing it for fun, really. And then I got carried away and it turned into a novel.

Lainey Cameron 21:45

It has definitely, I’ve had a chance to be read it. To me, it has a little bit of Hallmark vibes like a small town, cozy, bit of a mystery.

Gabi Coatsworth 21:53

But actually, Hallmark couldn't see it as a Hallmark movie. They said they liked it, but they never do things with ghosts, because that makes it paranormal. So that was an interesting reaction from them. But I'm glad they read it.

Lainey Cameron 22:06

And Noreen, I'm really excited to hear what your inspiration was. And I find it interesting that both you and Logan were kind of inspired by classical literary stories / heroines here. Tell me a little bit more about where that came from and how you decided to go down that path.

Noreen Mughees 22:23

I love Persuasion. I think it is my favorite book by Austen. I know people love Pride and Prejudice. And that's most people's favorite. But I feel like I relate to her character so much more in terms of being a woman who's later in life. And like, there's so much of that particular culture of like being set up. and the family dynamic, how she sort of navigates this, you know, I want to get married to someone that I love. But I also want to keep everybody else around me happy and sort of keep the peace. So, I think that's very sort of like how I grew up with the cultural thing that we South Asians are that way. So I think that and then I always love the classics. I love Shakespeare. I love asking and I grew up reading them. So it was a mishmash of the two ideas. And obviously, there's a lot of Bollywood references, because those are the movies that I grew up watching. And then there's a lot of food references in there too, which is part of South Asian culture. Like, everywhere we go, who comes with us and everything begins with food and ends with a dessert so whether it's a fight or a marriage or anything.

Lainey Cameron 23:38

The Bollywood references remind me a little of, um we had Sonali Dev on the podcast and Sonali works a lot of Bollywood references into her books and is very successful as I'm sure this one will be. I think people who love those books like me will adore your book too. So that's really fun to hear. And hopefully we see it on Hallmark, Hallmark on my brain.

Noreen Mughees 23:56

And I was just gonna say Gabi's point, like they have made ghost movies.

Lainey Cameron 24:00

You never know. Logan, I am fascinated by the concept of writing about the life of this author that I honestly knew nothing about right, everybody's heard of Anne of Green Gables, but just hearing how many other novels she wrote, like, how did I not know that? And I didn't even know that she was famous during her lifetime. Many authors aren't. Tell us more: How did you work all this out and decide that that was where you wanted to focus your historical fiction?

Logan Steiner 24:23

It's so interesting to hear Noreen's story. We were both drawn into our novels based on love of Anne characters. So for me, it was Anne of Green Gables and L.M. Montgomery is fiction. Those are my favorite books growing up. I was introduced to Anne of Green Gables, the original, by my grandmother who I was very close to who shared Maude’s Scottish roots also lived on a small Iowa farm town similar to the farm town in Prince Edward Island where Maude grew up. There's some real connections there. And I was immediately drawn to that character. I think there are probably as many reasons for loving Anne Of Green Gables as there are and fans out there. But for me, so much of what stood out with her unfiltered ways, I was somebody who was always really worried about what people thought from a young age and Anne inspired me and gave me permission to say more of what I meant in the world, when I read that character. Learning more about her creative life, I was immediately struck. I, like you Lainey, didn't know a lot about her background. But I read more about her life and was particularly struck by this note, left by her bed when she died. And this line in it says, “My position is too awful to endure, and nobody realizes it”. And that just hit so hard. For me, I think so many of us can look so different on the outside than you feel on the inside. And I think that line really got to that pain. And it really struck me as, for a creator of a character who really wore her emotions on her sleeve, to write that she couldn't share her deepest feelings with other people or that nobody knew what those feelings were, that juxtaposition just really stood out to me, I really wanted to dive into it further, in doing that, I came to realize how much of Anne’s way of being was both so attractive to people at the time, but also so threatening to people at the time, you know, it draws, and still today, I think it draws us in, but being that unfiltered, is deeply threatening, and was particularly threatening in that time and place. And Maude herself, you know, was really navigating that struggle her whole life. And it really is that divide between private self and public image, the driving force and central exploration of the novel.

Lainey Cameron 26:47

And isn't that interesting that like, we live in this world of social media today, right, where we think that it's because of social media that we have this issue of like, we're living in public, but that's not our real life. Isn't that fascinating? I would have thought that was a modern phenomenon and here, she was living with the same thing just in a different way, in a different time. I find that fascinating.

Logan Steiner 27:06

I do too. And I've talked about that with readers. I think, in a way we're facing, all of us now are facing in a more immediate sense, what only public figures like L.M. Montgomery faced back in that day. But I think there's so much in her story that has particular relevance now. And as part of what drew me in, because we're all doing that all the time, and figuring out just how real to be. And it's something that I've explored, I've made a commitment to myself to try to be as authentic as I can.

Gabi Coatsworth 27:37

I think it's amazing that she made a living from her books while she was alive. I'm sure we all wish we could do the same. She was a groundbreaking female.

Logan Steiner 27:47

She was, her books sold very well. And she supported her family for quite some time. Her husband struggled with mental illness and wasn't always able to work. And that was both a triumph and also a lot of pressure.

Lainey Cameron 28:00

That's a perfect transition, the pressure of being a new author to talk a little bit about writing advice. Maybe let's start with Logan this time. What's your best writing advice?

Logan Steiner 28:10

The power of habit is something that I have emphasized with so many people who say, How did you do this? I am a practicing lawyer. And I can say that it was a very slow process, it was kind of eight years from start to finish. But the best way that I found to get words on the page, which has always been the hardest thing for me as a very kind of self critical writer, was to make a 20 minute a day commitment. So I told myself, no matter what's happening, no matter if I'm working until 10pm, I will do at least 20 minutes, every day. A lot of times that would turn into more, but that habit was really how I went from having the dream of writing to actually writing. And relatedly, I would say having a day job has been really helpful for me. It's not for everyone. But having something where there's not pressure on making money, which is such an unpredictable thing in the arts. That's something that my mom as an artist,instilled in me, something that I'm very grateful to have.

Lainey Cameron 29:06

I've heard a lot, had a lot of conversations in the last few weeks about this question of do you want to put the pressure on your art that it has to be the thing that earns your money? And so yeah, it's very interesting to hear your perspective. And Noreen, what about you? What advice do you give to other writers?

Noreen Mughees 29:23

So I'm speaking from my perspective over marginalized authors. It's not easy. I will say that it's so much harder sometimes to find that yes, because you hear a lot of no’s you hear a lot of maybe’s, maybe we'll take it on, but not a lot of yeses. But my advice is, if you're a marginalized author, writing from the margins, keep going. Do not give up. Write the best story you can, don't worry about where it will go. And you will eventually find your audience and you will find a way to publishing, whether it's indie, whether it's traditional, whether it's short stories,. Like, there's many paths to publishing. My thing was kind of like Logan, that I didn't have a lot of time to do indie publishing in terms of like investing money and you know, marketing. I still have to market, by the way, it doesn't matter if you're traditional or not, you still have to market a lot. That's why I chose that route to find my audience because it's really hard if you're not writing genre fiction to find your niche audience . Or like I shouldn't say niche, just your audience. But yeah, perseverance, don't give up. Find your people, community. So important, I would not have gotten where I am, if I didn't have my friends cheering me on. Every single stage in writing, whether you're querying, then when you're in submission, then when you're debuting post debut, you sort of need people to like, vent to and talk to you and talk through a lot of things. So yeah, that's my advice.

Lainey Cameron 31:05

Absolutely and Gabi, I'm having you round us up here.

Gabi Coatsworth 31:09

I've got a couple of pieces of advice. One of them I'm famous for, and that is write badly, because I think a lot of people get intimidated by the idea that when you write a novel it comes straight out as a perfect book. Those of us who actually do that no, this doesn't happen at all, that the first draft is always awful. So I say to people write badly and aim low, and that's to Logan's point about writing every day. So if someone says to me I'm going to write 4 hours a day every day, I say stop right there because if you write 3 and 1/2 hours every day you're going to feel like you' failed, whereas if you set yourself 20 minutes which is brilliant, you're probably going to exceed it. And if you set yourself 5 days a week instead of 7, the same thing applies. And that seems to work for people, it certainly works for me. One of the things that also worked for me as you mentioned was joining write-ins. These are online events where writers check in, say what they're going to write and then write for 90 minutes and then say how well they did or didn't do. I run one of those myself, and when I do, I say to people it doesn't actually have to be writing. It's got to be something that moves your writing forward. So, it can be submitting or researching or any number of things joining writings which the Women's Fiction Writers Association organizes every day, sometimes 2 or 3 a day is a fantastic way to commit to writing because I find that with it on my calendar I'm more apt to do it. Oh gosh, my friends are waiting for me. I'd better show up, you know. So yes, and that also speaks to Noreen’s point about finding a community, because if you're writing women's fiction or you are writing about a protagonist who has a character arc, a journey, then no matter what genre you are in, and it could be cozy mysteries, it could be historical fiction. It could be a whole lot of things, the Women's Fiction Writers Association, which is not just for women by the way, offers a haven where you have this enormous resource - 2000 plus other writers doing what you're doing, that can help you. You could always find someone to answer your questions.

Lainey Cameron 33:21

Absolutely, and I think that support is especially important, like Noreen said, if you're writing something that hasn't been written before. You're writing on the margins, you're writing from a perspective that hasn't often been written. It feels like it's even worse, because there are so many gatekeepers there to say oh well, that doesn't look like something I'm used to seeing, and I think then it's even more important to find that community who's gonna say to you but that makes it even more valuable, not less valuable. Like, all these stupid gatekeepers you tell you will like that doesn't look like the kind of thing I've seen. I'm like, well, that's the whole point, that's why it's even better because you haven't read it before. And it is just weird to me that we get in this mode, especially in traditional publishing, where agents look at past sales and say did something like this sell in the past, but by definition if you're creating something fabulous because it's new, it's not going to look like something that sold in the past. And so I do think these other paths to publishing small publishers, Alcove is a phenomenal publisher there's a lot of smaller publishers. I went out with one and even indie publishing like don't let someone tell you your work doesn't belong in the world. It does and it's fabulous and it should be there.

And so I'm very happy to hear you say that Noreen because I think it's a problem we haven't solved yet in the world of women's fiction and we need to keep working on it with that. With that, I'm gonna wrap up. We put the social media of all of our authors here here on the podcast on our website at bestofwomensfiction.com. If you go to the website, look at this episode, you can find the social media and the links to all of the books for all of the authors that we just chatted with any final remarks before we go here or anything. Anything we neglected to say that anything any of you wanted to say?

Gabi Coatsworth 34:50

Well, I would just like to say thank you to you and Ashley for giving us authors a helping hand, because sometimes you feel quite lonely and this makes it so lovely to know that we've got friends.

Logan Steiner 35:05

Ao well put, and this is something wonderful to be here with all 3 of you today.

Noreen Mughees 35:09

Same, I wanna thank you, like you said you receive a lot of submissions for picking my book and you know, giving me the push and exposing me to other great writers. I'm gonna buy everybody's books and I'm so excited.

Lainey Cameron 35:23

Us too, and I would encourage everybody listening, go check out all 6 books. I am sure that when you look at the 6 you can find at least 2 that you want to read, possibly you're going to want to read all 6. So, go check them all out on the website. You've got all the links there and thank you' Ashley for hosting the first half of this. Thank you to all of our 6 authors for joining us today. Thanks so much!

women's fictionbookwritestoryfictionwomen writersbooksreadingbest women's fictiondebut noveldebut author2023 debuts

Lainey Cameron

Episode 133: *Special Fall Episode* Exciting 2023 Debuts!

In this special episode in our Fall/Winter season, we showcase six exciting women's fiction debuts.

Each of our six authors shares insights about their novel, the inspiration behind it, and their best writing advice.

From historical fiction to multi-cultural romance and a dose of the supernatural, there's something here for everyone!

Our Featured Debut Authors:

Other Links:

Connect with the authors:

Transcript:

** Transcript created using AI (so please forgive the typos!) **

Episode 134: Jane Healey, Bestselling author of Historical Fiction

Episode 132: Mary Camarillo, award-winning author

Episode 133: Special Fall Episode Exciting 2023 Debuts!

Transcript created using AI (so please forgive the typos!)