Skip to main content

Author News & Interviews

Interview: Wendy Webb, author of The Vanishing

Jan 24, 2014

Wendy Webb’s first two books, THE TALE OF HALCYON CRANE and THE FATE OF MERCY ALBAN, were both winners of the Minnesota Book Award for genre fiction. Now she follows up these successes with THE VANISHING, a gothic horror tale about a woman who accepts a job offer that she begins to suspect is too good to be true. In this interview with Bookreporter.com’s Sarah Rachel Egelman, Webb talks about what inspired the old haunted house (including “Downton Abbey” and séances gone wrong), which itself is almost a character in the novel. She also considers why people are so intrigued by horror stories and reveals some of her own favorites.

Author Talk: Julie Klassen, author of The Dancing Master

Jan 21, 2014

Three-time Christy Award winner Julie Klassen certainly knows her way around 19th-century romance. Her latest novel, THE DANCING MASTER, is also her first to offer a strong male perspective. In this interview, Klassen discusses writing from that particular point of view, as well as writing for a female who is more complicated and flawed than your standard romance novel heroine. She also talks about all the fun ways she researched 19th-century dancing, and why dancing in Regency England was such a torrid affair.

Author Talk: Artis Henderson , author of Unremarried Widow: A Memoir

Jan 17, 2014

In UNREMARRIED WIDOW, 26-year-old Artis Henderson loses her husband 20 years after her own mother was widowed, and overcomes two generations of tragedy to discover that both hope and love endure. In this interview, Henderson discusses the painful process of retelling her story, her relationships with fellow army wives, and her plans for the future.

Author Talk: Sue Monk Kidd, author of The Invention of Wings

Jan 9, 2014

Sue Monk Kidd is the bestselling author of three novels: THE SECRET LIFE OF BEES, THE MERMAID CHAIR and, most recently, THE INVENTION OF WINGS, the new pick of Oprah's Book Club 2.0. Her latest is the story of Sarah Grimké, one of the first female abolitionists and early feminist thinkers, and her slave, Hetty “Handful” Grimké, as they both strive for a life of their own, dramatically shaping each other’s destinies. In this interview, Kidd discusses what she initially found so captivating about the Grimké sisters, and all the interesting new things she learned about them while researching the book. She also opens up about why it’s more challenging to give voice to a character who really lived as opposed to a fictional one, the different challenges women face in pursuing freedom, and why she plans to continue writing stories of courage and daring for women.

Interview: Sonja Condit, author of Starter House

Jan 9, 2014

Debut author Sonja Condit received her MFA from Converse College, where she studied with Robert Olmstead, Leslie Pietrzyk, R. T. Smith and Marlin Barton. Her novel, STARTER HOUSE, is a promising start, to say the least. It’s about Lacey and her husband, Eric, who discover shortly after moving in that something sinister lurks within the walls of their dream house. To save her family --- and her unborn child --- Lacey must discover the truth about the house and confront an evil that has lingered in wait for years. In this interview with Bookreporter.com’s Kate Ayers, Condit opens up about the real-life house (which she and her husband didn’t buy) that inspired the spooky one in her book and whether or not she believes in ghosts. She also talks about writing her most challenging character, why she enjoys hearing other people’s ghost stories, and, in plenty of tantalizing detail, what she’s working on next.