In April I received an email from an author requesting I read and review her book. So many generous folks have helped spread the word about my own writing, so I happily said yes. And I’m glad I did. Peeling Away the Facade: The Long Shadow of Child Abuse is Lee Reinecke‘s first book, a…

Author interviews allow me to meet all sorts of people, which is one of the reasons I like to conduct them. M. Lee Musgrave, fellow 2021 Debuts author, is the sort of person I might never have crossed paths with, though we’d have a lot to discuss. M. Lee is a hiker, artist, curator, and…

I crossed paths with author Sarahlyn Bruck when an author acquaintance mentioned Sarahlyn’s Author Spotlights. I moseyed over to her website and got caught up reading all about the authors she has featured. And when I spied her tagline “writer │ reader │ runner”—three words I would use to describe myself—I knew I had to…

Like many of her fellow 2021 Debuts authors, Jaime Lynn Hendricks has been writing stories for years—essentially since she was a child. But her writing these days is not for kids. Michele Campbell described this debut novel, Finding Tessa, as “a dark tale of abuse, revenge and redemption, full of head-spinning, mind-boggling, Gone Girl-sized twists,”…

2021 Debuts author Melissa Wiesner and I would not agree on the best time to write: “she’s a night-owl who began writing novels about five years ago when her early-to-bed family retired for the evening” while I’m an early-to-rise writer who started five years before she did. But we both agree on what to write…

When I read 2021 Debuts author AJ Super’s bio—the part where she mentions living with her “two fuzz-brained kittiots”—I knew we’d get along just fine. And while I haven’t met her in person and write a genre very different from that which she is drawn to, I’m now convinced we’d be fast friends. Anyone who…

The more my writing world expands, the more authors I find with ties to Ohio. 2021 Debut author Khristeena Lute is no exception. She grew up in Southeastern Ohio before making her way to Arizona and Kentucky, eventually landing in New York. In ways, her writing mimics those moves: she wrote academic chapters about Grace…

Katherine Forrister, another 2021 Debuts author, just released Lodestone, a novel Cari Dubiel describes as “an impressive fantasy that leaves the reader both satisfied and wanting more.” Others who have endorsed the book mention the incredible setting, the complex characters, and the magic. What more could a debut novelist ask for? While Katherine might make…