Episodes

In this interview, Christie and I discuss B.F.F., all of the book's great pre-publication press, why friendships were so hard for her, social media's impact on relationships, how the title and cover came about, how her family responded to this book, and much more.

In this interview, Sally and I discuss The Keeper of Stories, how she collected the stories for the book, why she started writing fiction, the importance of intergenerational relationships, how truth is stranger than fiction, and much more.

In this interview, Alison and I discuss The Burning Season, her inspiration for this book, her fascination with cults as well as the wider world's fascination with them, infertility, writing from a first person point of view, and much more.

In this interview, Audrey and I discuss The Minuscule Mansion of Myra Malone, how she came up with the idea for the story, the fascination with miniatures, how her fabulous cover came about, choosing the book's locales, the Thorne Miniature Rooms at The Art Institute of Chicago, her inspiration for connecting the miniature house with the full size house in the story, and much more.

In this interview, Grady and I discuss How to Sell a Haunted House, his decision to write about dolls and puppets, how he started writing horror, world building, and much more. Grady’s recommended reads are: Revenge of the Do...

In this interview, Erika and I discuss Windfall, how she decided to write this book and the ways it changed over time, how everyone yearns to know where they come from, her internal conflicts about her family's inheritance, her book cover, climate change, her visits to North Dakota, and much more.

In this interview, Jenna and I discuss her new serial audio drama The Key of Love, creating this story, how she approached writing it and how it differed from writing a traditional book, the process for creating the audio dra...

In this interview, Sara and I discuss her High Society Lady Detective series, how she decided to write the series, how it has changed over time, why she chose the indie author route, her recent Kickstarter campaign, her podcasts, and much more.

In this Behind the Scenes interview, Christopher and I chat about his role as Art Director at Dutton and what it entails, how his department has changed since he started at Dutton, the step-by-step process for designing a book cover, his favorite part of the design process, how visiting local indie bookstores is a large part of his job, and much more.

In this special Behind the Books episode, Kelly Hooker interviews me about the podcast and how it has evolved, my reading life, my literary salon, how I got started in the book world, and much more.

Pam and I chat about her blog Who I Met Today, how and why she started it, what she has learned from the blog, our shared love of reading and books, the cookbooks she uses regularly and recommends, and much more. Want to subm...

In this bonus episode, authors Elise Hooper and Lynda Cohen Loigman recommend books about women with unusual careers. Elise's selections: Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead Finley Donovan is Killing It by Elle Cosimano The Cart...

Mary and Pamela join me to discuss their recommended reads for Winter 2023. Mary's Selections: Age of Vice by Deepti Kapoor The Night Travelers by Armando Lucas Correa The Sisters We Were by Wendy Willis Baldwin Go As A River...

In this episode, I reminisce about some of my favorite podcast episodes.

In this episode, Kelly and I chat about our favorite books of 2022.

In this interview, we discuss The Thread Collectors, how Alyson and Shaunna met and decided to write this book together, what their writing process looked like, the research behind the book, the book's original title and how they decided on The Thread Collectors, and much more.

In this special holiday episode, Amy and I discuss her family's holiday traditions and her recommended holiday reads, what makes a good holiday rom-com, tropes in the romance genre, fairy food, the allure of holiday music, and much more.

In this Behind the Scenes interview, Kevan and I chat about her role as a literary agent, forming her own agency, what she is looking for when is pitched by writers, how the manuscript submission process works, the importance of blurbs, the Lyonesses, and much more.

In this interview, Marcia and I discuss Dinner Is Done, how she got started in the culinary world, the process for creating the cookbook, her focus on easy weeknight meals, how she decided to structure the cookbook and why, and much more.

Elizabeth and I discuss our favorite narrative nonfiction books, our auto-buy nonfiction authors, categorizing the genre, the categories we gravitate toward, and more.

In this interview, Elly and I discuss Bleeding Heart Yard, the inspiration for the story and title, how her writing process has changed over her career, dark academia and its appeal, how working in the publishing industry affected her writing process, her recent Miss Marple short story, and much more.

In this interview, Tori and I discuss A Matter of Happiness, her personal interest in bourbon and craft cocktails, what the car in her book symbolizes, her gorgeous cover, the revisions she made while writing the book, how she chose her characters' names, and much more.

In this interview, Alice and I discuss A Ghost of Caribou, the importance of old-growth trees for mountain caribous' existence, how the loss of one species impacts an entire ecosystem, her favorite scenes to write, what surprised her the most when writing this book, her personal barren-ground caribou research, and much more.

In this interview, Joe and I discuss Blood and Ink, timing the publication of his book with the 100th year anniversary of the crime, the birth of tabloid journalism, his long-term interest in historical true crime, his research and the documents that he helped uncover about the case, how the title and cover came about, our fascination with true crime, and much more.