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Author News & Interviews

Author Talk: Tasha Alexander, author of The Counterfeit Heiress: A Lady Emily Mystery

Oct 16, 2014

Tasha Alexander is the author of the Lady Emily novels, a historical mystery series that most recently includes THE COUNTERFEIT HEIRESS. This ninth book finds Lady Emily embroiled in the murder investigation of one of the guests of a grand masquerade ball, Estella Lamar, a sometime actress trying to pass herself off as the mysterious heiress and world traveler. In this interview, Alexander talks about how much fun the book was to write, and why she chose to set the story in London and Paris. She also discusses the collection of photographs from a 19th-century masquerade ball that inspired her latest work, and how she has allowed Lady Emily to (slowly and believably) grow up over the course of the series.

Author Talk: Lynn Austin, author of Keepers of the Covenant: The Restoration Chronicles, Book 2

Oct 15, 2014

Lynn Austin has sold more than one million copies of her books worldwide. She is an eight-time Christy Award winner and an inaugural inductee into the Christy Award Hall of Fame, as well as a popular speaker at retreats, conventions, women's groups and book clubs. Her latest novel, KEEPERS OF THE COVENANT, is the second installment in her Restoration Chronicles series. It’s based on the biblical story of Ezra, a quiet Jewish scholar who is called upon to deliver his people from Babylon to Jerusalem and to bring hope in a time when dreams of the future seem impossible. In this interview, Austin discusses the themes that tie together KEEPERS OF THE COVENANT and the first book in the series, RETURN TO ME, as well as how she thinks readers will still relate to the challenges her characters faced centuries ago.

Author Talk: Lauraine Snelling, author of To Everything a Season: Song of Blessing, Book 1

Oct 15, 2014

Lauraine Snelling has written 80 books since launching her writing career in 1982. Her latest novel, TO EVERYTHING A SEASON, marks the beginning of her Song of Blessing series. Miriam Hastings intends to complete her training to become a nurse in Blessing, North Dakota, and then return home. But her growing attachment to local Trygve Knutson soon has her questioning all her future plans. In this Publishers Weekly interview conducted by Marcia Z. Nelson, Snelling opens up about why she initially started writing, what inspires her, and how she manages to write so prolifically.

Interview: Garth Stein, author of A Sudden Light

Oct 3, 2014

Garth Stein is the author of the New York Times bestselling novel THE ART OF RACING IN THE RAIN. His latest work of fiction, A SUDDEN LIGHT, is about Trevor Riddell, a 14-year-old boy whose willingness to face his family’s thorny history is the key to its future. In this interview with Bookreporter.com’s Kate Ayers, Stein discusses the evolution of this haunting (and haunted!) tale, including its original incarnation as a play, “Brother Jones,” and the hundred thousand words he wrote that never quite made it into the book. He also talks about why the best protagonists are always focused, his new appreciation for tree climbing (and his climbing guru), and why you don’t have to believe in ghosts to appreciate the magic of A SUDDEN LIGHT.

Author Talk: Matthew Thomas, author of We Are Not Ourselves

Aug 22, 2014

A graduate of the University of Chicago, Matthew Thomas has an MA from the Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University and an MFA from the University of California, Irvine, where he received the Graduate Essay Award. His first novel, WE ARE NOT OURSELVES, was more than a decade in the making, and tells the sprawling story of Eileen and Ed Leary, a wife and husband drawn apart and together again by their complicated relationship with the American Dream. In this interview, Thomas talks about what compelled him to keep writing through all those years --- more practical than mystical --- and offers some advice to aspiring writers. He also discusses how, ironically, his characters were finally able to live when he stopped trying to recreate the real-life people on whom they are based, and why the language of baseball and identity are indefinitely intertwined.