Posts by Writer Unboxed
We are thrilled to bring you a sneak peek at the latest psychological thriller from WU contributor Yasmin Angoe, titled NOT WHAT SHE SEEMS. The book was featured in Amazon’s First Reads program in July, and is already drawing loads of pre-release buzz, including this:
“In a dramatic change from Angoe’s trilogy about professional assassin Nina Knight, a disgraced daughter returns to her South Carolina family to find that it’s in even bigger trouble than she thought…Endless skeletons in the family closet, all disclosed by a protagonist who makes one reckless move after another.” – Kirkus Reviews
NOT WHAT SHE SEEMS releases widely on August 1st. Ready to hear more? Keep reading!
Q1: What’s the premise of your new book?
YA: Jacinda “Jac” Brodie returns to her South Carolinian hometown because her grandfather has fallen ill after six years of self-exile because of her guilt (and the town’s accusations) over her father’s death years ago. Once she returns, she meets the newest town member, a businesswoman who’s renovating the infamous Moor Manor and promises to bring more prestige and tourism to the town. The town quickly accepts Faye Arden, but Jac senses something sinister about her. As she digs deeper into who the woman is and what it is about her that rubs Jac the wrong way, Jac begins to wonder if Faye might have had something to do with her grandfather suffering his heart attack, and more.
Q2: What would you like people to know about the story itself?
YA: The story is my modern take on two works I taught my students in the past, the “The Spider and the Fly” by Mary Howitt and “The Landlady” by Roald Dahl. I was/am obsessed with those works and the idea of what we see about people verses who they really are when no one is watching.
Q3: What do your characters have to overcome in this story? What challenge do you set before them?
YA: For Jac, she has to overcome herself. She can be her own worst enemy because she’s reckless in how she deals with her problems. She also runs away and hides instead of dealing with situations head on. She deals with a lot of guilt which compound her running, hiding, loneliness, and making poor choices. So, she has the challenge of realizes that she must face her issues head on if she’s going to save herself, her family, this town from a potentially deadly force of nature. I think all the characters, the villain included, are challenged with their versions of loneliness. How they solve their loneliness and inability to be really seen and appreciated for who they are what makes up the conflicts between them and other characters.
Q4: What unique challenges did this book pose for you, if any?
YA: The unique challenge for me was shifting from the more action/espionage/grander scale type of thriller I was writing with Her Name Is Knight and the other books in the trilogy and shifting to a domestic suspense psychological kind of story and still make it thrilling, and still give the deep characters I enjoy writing. It was a good challenge to have…I say that now that the book is done, but while writing it I sure did suffer and question myself and […]
Read MoreWe are thrilled to bring you an interview with longtime WU contributor, Sophie Masson, for a sneak peek at her new adult novel, The Paris Cooking School (written under the name of Sophie Beaumont), which comes out in the US and Canada on August 6, published by Alcove Press. The novel first came out in Sophie’s native Australia in November 2023, and received great reviews (including a full page in Australian hottest women’s magazine). The book was subsequently sold to North America, Portugal (where it’s just come out), Germany, and Ukraine.
There are two additional bits of exciting news in advance of the publication here in the states and in Canada. First, North American audio rights have just been sold. Also, Barnes and Noble is including it in their fabulous Sale for the Pages pre-order promotion, which is already in progress, running from July 10 to July 17. It’s all looking very promising in the lead up to publication!
Want to know more? Read on:
Q1: What’s the premise of your new book?
SM: My book, The Paris Cooking School (written under the pen-name of Sophie Beaumont) is an adult contemporary novel set, you guessed it, in Paris 😊 It features three main characters, Kate Evans, Gabi Picabea and Sylvie Morel, who are all at crossroads in their lives. Gabi and Kate have both come for the month-long course at Sylvie’s Paris Cooking School, after major crises in their lives—in Kate’s case, a bitter marriage breakup, in Gabi’s case a crippling creative block. Meanwhile, Sylvie is facing a worrying online harassment campaign targeting her business, and trouble from her commitment-shy lover Claude. What the three women find during that extraordinary April in Paris will change the course of their lives—and bring new love, too. Set against a gorgeous background of Paris in spring, and studded with delicious references to French food, it’s a novel that Australian readers have already taken to their hearts, and which I hope North American readers will just as much! The book comes out in the US and Canada on August 6, published by lovely Alcove Press.
Q2: What would you like people to know about the story itself?
SM: This is a story that gave me immense pleasure to write—it combines so many things about my heritage, my experience, my interests—and I am delighted that it’s already given other people so much pleasure to read. It’s a joyful, hopeful novel, even though it doesn’t shy away from the real difficulties and challenges that life throws up. It’s a novel of second chances, of finding yourself in a magical city. It’s a novel to savour and relish on a long summer’s day—or any day, come to that!
Q3: What do your characters have to overcome in this story? What challenge do you set before them?
SM: They have to overcome many things, amongst them betrayal by those nearest to them, online trolling, misunderstandings, crises of confidence…but in the end, they overcome them, not always in the ways you might expect!
Q4: What unique challenges did this book pose for you, if any?
SM: I have to say this book was such a joy to write that I can’t really think of any particular challenges I faced: for me it combined perfectly my […]
Read MoreWriter Unboxed will publish a regular writing-related post tomorrow but wanted to pause today to recognize the United State’s newest national holiday, Juneteenth.
Juneteenth (short for “June Nineteenth”) marks the day when federal troops arrived in Galveston, Texas in 1865 to take control of the state and ensure that all enslaved people be freed. The troops’ arrival came a full two and a half years after the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation. Juneteenth honors the end to slavery in the United States and is considered the longest-running African American holiday. – history.com
Rather than leave comments today, we encourage reflection, for America and for one another.
Learn more about Juneteenth HERE.
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We’re delighted to bring you an interview with author and WU contributor Desmond Hall, and a sneak peek at his upcoming release, BETTER MUST COME. What’s the pitch?
Barely Missing Everything meets American Street in this fiercely evocative, action-packed young adult thriller that looks at the darker side of light-filled Jamaica and how a tragedy and missing drug money helplessly entangle the lives of two teens who want to change their fate.
The book is gaining a lot of buzz, including: “Hall presents an expansive exploration of how class and privilege intersect within Jamaican culture through the eyes of teens in this intimately narrated tale told via Deja and Gabriel’s dual POVs.“–Publishers Weekly; and this: “Criminal intrigue and the unique vulnerabilities of Caribbean youth make for high-stakes hijinks with a lot of heart.”–Kirkus Reviews
Want to hear more? Read on!
Q1: What’s the premise of your new book?
Desmond Hall: BETTER MUST COME is an evocative, action-packed YA thriller that looks at the darker side of light-filled Jamaica and how tragedy and missing drug money helplessly entangle the lives of two teens who want to change their fate.
Deja is a “Barrel Girl” – one of the Jamaican kids who gets barrels (containers filled with clothes, food and other goods not available on island) from parents who’ve left them to go to the US and Canada to make more money. Gabriel is caught up in a gang and desperate for a way out. When he meets Deja at a party, he starts looking for a way into her life, and starts wondering if they could be part of each other’s futures.
Then one day, while out fishing, Deja spies a go-fast boat stalled out by some rocks and smeared with blood. On board, a badly wounded man thrusts a bag at her, begging her to deliver it to someone halfway across the island, and not to say a word. She binds his wounds, determined to send help and make good on her promise…not realizing the bag is stuffed with half a million US dollars. Not realizing that the posse Gabriel is in will stop at nothing to get the bag. Or that Gabriel’s and her lives will intersect in a way they never could have imagined as they’re forced to make split-second decisions to save the lives of the ones they love.
Q2: What would you like people to know about the story itself?
DH: A really cool thing about Better Must Come is that it’s a lose retelling of Homer’s Odyssey. Like Odysseus, the Greek warrior, who had to use his wits and courage to find his way home after the Trojan wars, Deja must also use best attributes. They are both warriors of different kinds navigating different times.
Also, the theme of abandonment plays a much larger role in Better Must Come. In the Odyssey, Odysseus abandons his family to go fight in the wars, whereas Deja is abandoned by her mother who leaves to earn money in the “first world”, and then Deja in turn abandons her siblings to go on an odyssey in order to save her family.
What’s also fun, is that readers can find “Easter eggs” throughout the book, as there are characters from the Odyssey that are reimagined […]
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We are delighted to bring you a first look at the new book of award-winning middle-grade author and WU contributor Rachel Toalson. SOMETHING MAYBE MAGNIFICENT is a sequel to last summer’s release, and as it was then, this book is receiving great pre-release buzz, such as:
“This sequel thoughtfully and sincerely explores themes of womanhood, family, anxiety, and identity…Tugs at the heartstrings and shows the importance of unconditional love.”–Kirkus Reviews
Ready to take a deeper dive? Here’s Rachel!
Q1: What’s the premise of your new book?
Rachel Toalson: There’s a new man in her mom’s life and 13-year-old Victoria Reeves is determined to get rid of him, whatever it takes.
This summer she’s reading Sylvia Plath and trying to get published, she’s growing up and getting used to her monthly “visitor,” and she’s coming to terms with her relationship with her estranged father while she grapples with her evolving views of womanhood. But the biggest bump in her “magnificent summer plans” is her mom’s new boyfriend, Kyle Moreland.
To protect her mom and family from this unwelcome interloper, Victoria plays pranks on Kyle, blames him for messes and spills, and tries to make his life as miserable as she possibly can so he’ll go away. Meanwhile, she wrestles with the knowledge that this mean person doing these mean things isn’t really who she is. And she’s not sure it’s who she wants to be. But you have to do what you have to do to protect your family, right?
When things go a little too far, Victoria has to decide whether she’ll continue building her walls of self-protection or if she’ll let someone new–someone who might be a really good guy–step into the gap her father left and help her and her family move on.
Something Maybe Magnificent is a sequel to last summer’s release, The First Magnificent Summer, but it also stands alone and can be read without reading the first.
Q2: What would you like people to know about the story itself?
RT: This story is a very personal story for me, as was The First Magnificent Summer. When my stepfather came into my life, I reacted exactly the way Victoria reacts. I did most of the things she does. In fact, this story is basically our story.
Kids of divorce aren’t always welcoming to the people who come into their parents’ lives after a divorce. There’s a very quiet, persistent hope that says, Maybe Mom and Dad will get back together and things will be better than before, despite all the evidence to the contrary. I’m a child if divorce. I know this hope can oftentimes blind us to the love and wonder of potential stepparents.
This book is a realistic picture of that struggle, but it’s also a celebration of good stepparents. The ones who stick around and say, I’m gonna love you the best way I know how, because you’re magnificent and you deserve it. That’s what my stepfather did for me and my brother and sister. Good stepparents step into the gap left by a parent, and they love kids the way they should be loved, which is to say unconditionally, without expectation, without end.
Q3: What do your characters have to overcome in this story? What challenge do you set before them?
RT: Victoria […]
Read MoreWe are thrilled to bring you a closer look at the new novel from author and WU contributor Terah Shelton Harris titled, Long After We Are Gone, out this coming Tuesday (May 14). After the triumph of Terah’s debut last year, we can’t wait to see what she has in store for us. Especially after hearing praise like that of NY Times Bestselling Author Quinn Connor: “Once again, Terah Harris proves she is a powerhouse of Southern literature whose unmistakably poignant prose, profound themes and vibrant characters are built to stand the test of time. Long After We Are Gone is a beautifully-woven story of familial bonds, generational trauma and the nature of love. Richly evocative, this book will move your soul.”
Want to hear more? Here’s our interview with Terah:
Q1: What’s the premise of your new book?
TSH: LONG AFTER WE ARE GONE is a powerful and emotional family drama of four siblings grappling with their personal demons and collective struggles who return home after their father dies to save their ancestral home, the Kingdom, and 200 acres of land from being sold to a development company. This book is inspired by the story of Melvin Davis and Licurtis Reels of North Carolina who went to jail for eight years after refusing to leave the land their great grandfather purchased more than a century ago after it was sold from underneath them without their knowledge or consent. I first read their story years ago and was frustrated, shocked, and angry not only at what happened to them, but that I had never heard of ever heir property before. After much research, I was amazed that the brothers were not alone in their fight and that involuntary land loss from heir property is such an important issue that no one really knows about or talks about.
Q2: What would you like people to know about the story itself?
TSH: LONG AFTER WE ARE GONE is a work of fiction but the circumstances surrounding heir property is not. After the Reconstruction, Black Americans started buying land and at the same time laws were created to dispossess them of their land. Because they could not trust Southern white courts, in the case of the Solomon siblings and so many Black families now and then, the Kingdom was passed down without a will, making it heir property, a form of ownership in which descendants inherit an interest in the land, similar to holding stock in a company. One of the problems with heir property is that over time, there can be quite the number of heirs to the land. Heir property does not constitute a clear title which means the land is vulnerable to developers, corporations, and governments. Not having a clear title can lead to many challenges. Because it is difficult for heirs to prove ownership, they may be unable to access loans and mortgages, apply for USDA grants or loans. It’s estimated that tens of thousands of Katrina victims with heir property could not prove ownership. Heir property is not recognized as “the worst problem you never heard of” or the “the leading cause of Black involuntary land loss” by the U.S. Department of Agriculture without justification. In LONG AFTER WE ARE GONE, […]
Read MoreWe’re thrilled to bring you a Take Five interview with USA Today Bestselling and award-winning author, and longtime contributor, Heather Webb. With an inside look at her latest novel, which releases this Tuesday: Queens of London. So what’s the pitch?
“With engaging characters and strong women protagonists, Webb’s page-turning historical work speaks to the challenges that women faced in the 1920s and the fortitude they needed in order to succeed in a society led by men.”–Booklist
The book is getting loads of buzz, including being named: Most Anticipated Historical Fiction of 2024 by SheReads, Best Historical Fiction of 2024 by Bookbub, and Must-Read Historical Fiction of Winter by PopSugar. Ready to find out more? Take it away, Heather!
Q1: What’s the premise of your new book?
HW: The book is about the first all-female crime syndicate in 1925 London called the Forty Elephants, their leader Diamond Annie, and also Lilian Wyles, the first female in the criminal investigation department at Scotland Yard. They go toe-to-toe in a grand heist, crossing paths with an orphan on the run and a clever shop clerk, who are also main characters. The four females collide in a rollicking, fast-paced tale that’s a bit gritty at times and also a bit tender.
Q2: What would you like people to know about the story itself?
HW: The story is ultimately about the ever-shifting meaning of justice, how it is so rarely “black and white.” It’s also about female friendship—women looking out for each other—and the burgeoning women’s rights movement.
Q3: What do your characters have to overcome in this story? What challenge do you set before them?
HW: My four main characters are placed in a multitude of situations where they’re constantly confronted with the question of right versus wrong, as well as what they must sacrifice in the name of survival. One is faced with jail time, another with abject poverty and even death, another with losing her job, and the last, never being taken seriously or respected in the workplace and elsewhere because she’s beautiful, despite the fact that she’s clearly the best and brightest.
Q4: What unique challenges did this book pose for you, if any?
HW: Oh, there’s always a challenge, isn’t there! I wouldn’t have it any other way. First, I’ve never written a book with four points of view. Second, I’d never written from the perspective of a child (One of my MCs is a 10-year-old)! Third, while editing this book, trying to keep the points of view and character arcs straight was a nightmare at first. At last, I decided to try Scrivener, which I’d never used before. I’m rather tired of learning new software and new apps every time I turn around, but man, am I glad I did! Suddenly it was remarkably simple to move chapters and scenes around, and it streamlined the editorial process as a whole, too.
Q5: What has been the most rewarding aspect of having written this book?
HW: I really enjoyed writing these characters and was sad to let them go. (Underdogs are my favorite kind of character.) I also loved writing women who were misbehaving! Perhaps the most rewarding, though, was pulling off the overwhelming task of researching and depicting a new era, a new setting, and bringing four points of view together in […]
Read MoreToday marks Writer Unboxed’s 18th blog-versary! Many thanks to all who contribute to the success of this site–our editors, our contributors, our guests, and our community members! You are the reason that WE write on.
If you’d like to make a gift to Writer Unboxed, which is used to help with its upkeep and evolution, you can learn about how to do so HERE.
Let’s have a great year!
How long have YOU been writing? When did Writer Unboxed become a part of your journey? What goals have you set for yourself for this coming year?
Read MoreWriter Unboxed will be on our annual holiday break through the 2nd of the year. We hope that you and yours enjoy the season, and that you’ll join us again in 2023! Until then, write on!
Read MoreWhether or not you’re in a part of the world that celebrates Thanksgiving, we want to take this opportunity to let you know how grateful we are to you, WU community–for your support, for your thought-provoking comments, and for persevering with us these many years.
Thank you!
Regular programming will resume on Monday with a new post from Kim Bullock. Write on.
Read MoreWe are thrilled to bring you news of a new book release by long-time contributor, prolific community member, and one of WU’s cornerstone editors, Vaughn Roycroft! Vaughn’s debut novel, The Severing Son (AKA the first novel in The Sundered Nation trilogy) has been widely praised, with some comparing Vaughn’s work to John Gwynne’s Faithful and the Fallen series. The second novel in the series, Bold Ascension, picks up where The Severing Son left off. Beyond what readers of Vaughn’s debut want most to know, we want to know how this book has shaped Vaughn as an author. Read on for more on both topics.
You can learn more about Vaughn and The Sundered Nation Trilogy on his website, and by following him on Twitter and Instagram.
Congratulations, Vaughn!
Q1: What’s the premise of your new book?
VR: The Sundered Nation Trilogy is rooted in the culture clash between the Germanic Tribes and the Roman Empire during its decline. Book one, The Severing Son, is about the rise of a young, banished chieftain—Vahldan of the Amalus—to prominence. With the help of his warrior woman guardian, Elan, Vahldan seeks to lift his people from poverty. Finding he is up against those who would repress their own for profit, he seeks to bypass the system by pursuing glory to the fringes of the empire. Bold Ascension takes off from his arrival in an eastern imperial province with a prosperous sea trade.
Vahldan finds his way to wealth and increasing stature in this new world, which only spurs on his power-seeking. Bold Ascension is an exploration of the corrosive effect of ambition—how someone starting with altruistic goals can be led astray, and entangled in darker pursuits.
Q2: What would you like people to know about the story itself?
VR: I consider the trilogy to be one long story, and ultimately it’s a redemption tale. For that reason, this center section of the tale focuses on a hero’s descent. Having said that, it’s very much about human nature. What happens to a person who succeeds swiftly, in a way that exceeds all of their expectations—when society seems to be rewarding him for indulging his worst instincts.
Adding to the toxic effect is the leveraging of religious zealotry, the dehumanization of other societal groups, and a willingness to embrace violence, all in the pursuit of political power. I’ve often marveled since I began working on it how much more applicable to our times this story becomes as the years go by. Which I find frightening. But it also reminds me of the importance of sharing it.
Q3: What do your characters have to overcome in this story? What challenge do you set before them?
VR: The biggest obstacle during the first third of this book is finding one’s way in a totally foreign world—a world in which one is perceived as backward, or less-than. It’s a circumstance that creates resentment, which—at first—becomes motivational. As in, “I’ll show them.” I had a lot of fun flipping the concept of heroes and villains on its head in this book. As we know, villains perceive themselves as the heroes of their own story. Conversely, does a hero perceive when their […]
Read MoreTherese Anne Fowler is the New York Times, IndieBound, and USA Today bestselling author of multiple novels including Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald, which was adapted for television starring Christina Ricci. She has been a finalist for the Goodreads Choice Awards and the Southern Book Prize for fiction. Her articles and essays have appeared in The Week, Harper’s Bazaar, the Telegraph, and elsewhere. Therese earned a BA in sociology/cultural anthropology and an MFA in creative writing, both from NC State University.
We are elated that Therese, with her “keen eye for human foibles and emotional truth, humor and deep feeling,” will present a keynote address on Authenticity at this year’s Writer Unboxed UnConference in Salem, MA–a topic that is an ideal complement for our ALL IN program.
You can learn more about our full program on Eventbrite. Write on!
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