Take Five
Vaughn Roycroft, longtime WU contributor, dear friend, and assistant editor, releases his third novel—DESTINY’S DOOM, the final book in his epic Sundered Nation Trilogy–a week from this Tuesday, on March 18th.
When thinking about how to introduce this interview, we kept coming back to the same truth: Who doesn’t love Vaughn? He’s the nicest among us, the one most likely to leave a thoughtful comment on any given day, always ready with a kind word. Of course, we want to support him—because who wouldn’t?
But pointing out Vaughn’s generous heart and dedication to this community felt too easy—too obvious. We wanted something more.
So, we went digging in the WU archives to find his very first comment here. And, friends, we hit the jackpot.
September 17, 2010, at 9:01 AM
“…I’m a first-time novelist, and in the past year I put my first manuscript out there for others to read. I’ve been on the receiving end of that awkward moment you describe more often than I care to remember, including my own mother’s initial response. In the first round, the highly mixed reviews nearly caused me to quit. I reminded myself that many of these readers have never even read my chosen genre. I rededicated myself, revised, and I know I came up with a better result. I have the rewritten version out there again, and the results are much improved. It’s still my story, but seeing it through the eyes of others helped me to bring clarity to it. The process has been a roller coaster ride of joy and pain, but in the end, so very worthwhile.”
That date—2010—reminds us that storytelling is a journey, and not just for our characters.
Over the years, Vaughn has faced doubt and struggle, but also moments of triumph—seeing his books reach fantasy readers, growing a loyal fan base, and even hearing his work brought to life as an audiobook (which, by the way, is excellent).
One of the biggest keys to finishing a novel is perseverance, and few embody that spirit like Vaughn. He has always had a vision, and no matter what life threw at him, he never stopped pushing forward.
And now, with his first trilogy complete, we get to celebrate this enormous milestone with him.
Let’s dive in.
Q1: What’s the premise of your new book?
VR: Destiny’s Doom is the final edition of The Sundered Nation Trilogy. Although I doubt there will be many who will be overly concerned, I suppose I ought to start by warning that it will be nearly impossible to answer many questions about book 3 without revealing mild spoilers for books 1 and 2.
To quickly bring you up to speed, here is how I began my answer to this question for book 2, Bold Ascension:
“The Sundered Nation Trilogy is rooted in the culture clash between the Germanic Tribes and the Roman Empire during its decline. Book 1, 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 people for profit, he seeks to bypass the system by pursuing glory to the fringes of a nearby […]
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We are so delighted to put the focus on WU contributor and award-winning author Rachel Toalson’s most recent book. THE COLORS OF A LIFE is a collection of poetry and is out now! What’s the pitch?
“The Colors of a Life reminds us that all the pretty and not-so-pretty colors we experience over a lifetime shape us into who we are. And they all (even the not-so-pretty ones) add up to a brilliant life.
Perfect for fans of Mary Oliver, Sharon Olds, Billy Collins, and Maggie Smith, The Colors of a Life is Rachel’s tenth book of poetry.”
Did you catch that, WU? Her tenth! Wow. Congratulations, Rachel–you are an inspiration! Are you all as ready as we are to learn more? Here’s Rachel:
Q1: What’s the premise of your new book?
RT: The Colors of a Life is a poetry collection that observes and honors all the colors of a life. Through poetry, I explore the colors of love, loss, childhood, joy, hope, mental illness and much more, braiding the past with the present and the future. Some of the poems are humorous, some somber, some celebratory, some incredibly introspective. I span such subjects as the wonder (and comfort) of gray sweat pants, the bliss of crispy tater tots, the yellow and purple beginnings of eating disorders and body dysmorphia, the orange and red hues of connection, the brown reminders of the infinite, and all the worlds in between.
I suppose, at its heart, The Colors of a Life is a collection that celebrates life itself.
Q2: What would you like people to know about the story itself?
RT: The collection began with my hypothesis that while we don’t consider every color beautiful, they can still be beautiful. Even the colors we tend to wrinkle our noses at (brown? Who says their favorite color is brown except for my husband, because it’s the color of my eyes?) can still be beautiful when we examine them through love and understanding. So maybe there is a not-so-great memory associated with brown (hello, collecting pecans to get out of the house where a dad yelled), but how can we reframe that and look at it through a lens of understanding? How did it shape who we became, even if it was terribly uncomfortable? How can we redeem brown? Well, some of my kids’ eyes are brown. Of course that’s beautiful.
All these colors–whether we consider them beautiful or not–shape us into who we are. So maybe they’re worth paying a little closer attention to in our memories and in our present lives.
Q3: What do your characters have to overcome in this story? What challenge do you set before them?
RT: I don’t have characters, since this is a poetry book, but I think what I had to overcome and what I hope readers will overcome is a general sense of ennui and/or malaise in my life. The world can take so much out of us. But reconnecting to the beauty of moments can sometimes lift our spirits and help us feel less weary and bored and dissatisfied with where we are and where we’re going.
Q4: What unique challenges did this book pose for you, if any?
RT: Any time I’m collecting my poetry into a book, I usually have two challenges: (1) sorting through the thousands of […]
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I recently received quite an honor–a gift, actually–in the form of an advance reading copy of a book from someone I’ve long admired. Our esteemed colleague, Juliet Marillier, first appeared here at WU in a post on February 28, 2007. The essay from that day is titled Hummingbirds and Owls, utilizing the two birds in a metaphor comparing types of writers. You might have noticed in the image above that the title of her new novel, which releases tomorrow, is THE AMBER OWL. Coincidence or magic? I tend to think it’s the latter, as everything Juliet does tends to feel magical to me.
It was a piece Juliet published–an interview with fellow fantasist Jacqueline Carey from November of ’07–that lured me to my very first visit to WU. Soon afterward I read my first Juliet Marillier book: Daughter of the Forest. I was blown away. I went looking for the email I wrote to her, gushing about the book. Suffice to say, it was long enough ago that I still had an AOL email address, and I can’t get into my old account anymore (had to be prior to 2010).
I’m a longtime fan of her books, but beyond that Juliet has meant so much more to me. I consider her a guiding light, an inspiration, a mentor, and a friend. She has shown me nothing but kindness, support, and encouragement, and I’m certain I’m not alone in feeling this way. Reading THE AMBER OWL went beyond mere immersion in a new fantasy world. As you’ll soon see, I consider the book to be one of the most timely and relevant stories I’ve read in some time.
What’s it about?
“Stasya lives in an isolated farming village on the edge of the mysterious Heartwood Forest with her unusual dog for company. Thought odd by the locals, she is tolerated for her rare gift with animals. The peace of Heartwood is shattered when a group of soldiers descends, under orders from the Ruler of the Northlands, there to hack a path through the forest and find the fabled treasure said to lie deep within.
Secrets abound; dangers lie everywhere; and it is hard to tell friend from foe. As Stasya and her band of unlikely allies embark on a perilous mission, it becomes apparent that uncanny forces may indeed be involved. Maybe the old tales of the Hermit are true.”
That summary only scratches the surface of this wonderful, compelling tale. Please read on to learn more, about the book, and about our wise friend and colleague.
Q1: Although THE AMBER OWL opens with the establishment of an ordinary world that is full of the usual Juliet Marillier coziness and charm, we are quickly swept up in calamity that brings world-altering harm to the characters. It may be a historical fantasy, but from greed-driven exploitation of natural resources to cold, authoritarian abuse of power, the relentless current of the story feels terribly familiar—relatable and relevant to today’s chaotic world. Were you initially incited to draw upon such relevancy, or did it simply flow from you once you began?
JM: I started planning this story over two years ago. From the start, I knew it would have an environmental theme, and I envisaged the […]
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We are so happy to bring you an advance look at the upcoming novel from longtime WU contributor L.J. Cohen. The book, LITANY FOR A BROKEN WORLD, releases on February 10, 2025. We were curious about the book’s genre, and were intrigued by this bit of advance buzz:
“I think Litany qualifies as both Science Fiction and Fantasy. A central theme of the story is the multiverse, from the many worlds hypothesis of quantum physics. Science. The characters move between the worlds thanks to a personal trait. Fantasy. They are both essential to the story and she blends them well.”–Author Jim Bowering
Want to hear more? Here’s L.J.!
Q1: What’s the premise of your new book?
LJC: The short version? A modern adult reworking of The Wizard of Oz in the very real world of a Boston homeless encampment. A slightly longer version: 3 people from different worlds in the multiverse are drawn together on the night of the Boston homeless census and must heal the broken places inside themselves before they can help what is broken in the universe.
Q2: What would you like people to know about the story itself?
LJC: While the story takes place in a makeshift shelter in an abandoned building, and many of the characters struggle to survive in an uncaring world, I don’t see it as dystopic. This is ultimately a story of hope against despair and strength from trust and friendship. And I promise the readers: Poplar the dog does not die in the end.
Q3: What do your characters have to overcome in this story? What challenge do you set before them?
LJC: Reina is a young teen who makes an unauthorized trip through the multiverse which lands her in a strange world and in a body not her own.
Melissa is a middle aged psychiatrist dealing with complex grief and career burnout when she discovers the truth about multiverse travel, which triggers traumatic memories of a childhood ‘imaginary friend’ who may not have been so imaginary.
Thorne is a seer who is reviled by those he tries to help and weary of the burden his gift has had him carry for so many decades.
Each of these three main protagonists have to find a way to cope with their traumas and learn to trust themselves and their new strange companions.
Each of the secondary characters also have their individual hardships to overcome:
Martin is a young unhoused man struggling to provide shelter for his sister and the myriad of other unhoused people who live in the abandoned building he has taken over.
Stirling is an EMT who struggles to fulfill his lay ministry in caring for the unhoused which at times conflicts with his job at EMS.
Jace and Corrine (Reina’s parents) are former agents of the Multiverse Travelers Network who are on the run and trying to safeguard their daughter before she attracts the notice of the agency.
Q4: What unique challenges did this book pose for you, if any?
LJC: Writing a book with more than one point of view is always a challenge. This book had three interlocking storylines and nine distinct points of view. The more I fought to simplify the story’s structure, the more the book fought back. Which is why it took me six years to write. It was also different in […]
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We are delighted to bring you a sneak-peek at the new release from longtime WU community member Barry Knister. The book, SOMEONE BETTER THAN YOU, is available now. What’s the pitch?
For years, Brady Ritz writes satire about his family and friends under a fake name, but when vanity leads him to publish a collection of his essays under his own name, his wife Natalie leaves him alone in their Naples, Florida golf community. It doesn’t matter that what he wrote is often right, or that he concealed people’s identities. Once they learn Brady wrote a book, people start reading, and finding themselves.
If you’ve been around WU for any length of time, you already know that Barry is insightful and often dryly hilarious. In fact, at the most recent WU UnConference, Barry’s reading from his own work had us all in stitches. Ready to learn more?
Q1: What’s the premise of your new book?
BK: Someone Better Than You follows retired newspaper editor Brady Ritz in the months after he makes a huge mistake. As a hobby, for years Brady wrote a satirical column for Grumble, an obscure little magazine. He used neighbors in his retirement golf community and family members as material. He took pains to conceal their identities, and wisely used a pseudonym. But when Grumble goes out of business, vanity leads Ritz to publish a collection of his columns. The fallout is what fuels the novel.
Q2: What would you like people to know about the story itself?
BK: Even though he sees American society as “buried under a compost mound of feelings,” I hope readers will come to appreciate Brady. Yes, he is abrasive and critical, but he is also essentially a good man. Can readers–most of whom will be women–become invested in such a character? It’s less easy to bring off likeability for such a person, but I hope readers will “get” Brady. I also hope they will appreciate the story in terms of its subtitle: A Comedy of Manners.
Q3: What do your characters have to overcome in this story? What challenge do you set before them?
BK: Brady Ritz is something like the protagonist in Fredrik Backman’s A Man Called Ove. He’s at odds with himself and his times. Brady doesn’t believe people really change. They just adapt, or as he puts it, they “knuckle under.” But qualities in his makeup that have been suggested early on are released by story’s end. Chief among them are compassion and kindness. But because Ritz sees society as preoccupied with feelings, when they emerge in himself, they do so in very exaggerated terms. At odds with Ritz’s difficult self are other characters, first and foremost his estranged wife Natalie. A reveal related to her long-suffering character is what concludes the novel. It’s meant as an ironic comment on the book’s title.
Q4: What unique challenges did this book pose for you, if any?
BK: The first was maintaining Brady Ritz’s difficult self without alienating readers. This was complicated for me by not giving Brady the kind of change or transformation that most think should be true of main characters. By story’s end, Ritz is still himself, but in more complete terms. The second challenge for […]
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We’re delighted to bring you a sneak peek at the upcoming release from longtime WU contributor Heather Webb and her collaborator Hazel Gaynor. The book, CHRISTMAS WITH THE QUEEN, releases this coming Tuesday, November 19th. A bit about their collaboration:
Hazel Gaynor and Heather Webb’s co-written historical novels have all been published to critical acclaim. The USA Today and international bestseller, Last Christmas in Paris, won the 2018 Women’s Fiction Writers Association Star Award, Meet Me in Monaco was shortlisted for the 2020 Romantic Novelists’ Association Historical Novel award, and Three Words for Goodbye was selected by Prima Magazine as a Best Novel of 2021. Christmas With The Queen is their fourth collaboration.
The book is getting plenty of pre-release buzz, including this:
“A page-turning festive read, full of will they/won’t they romance, intriguing glimpses of royal life behind palace doors, and inspiring culinary treats. As delicious as a Christmas pudding topped with flaming brandy and lashings of cream.”- Gill Paul, USA Today bestselling author
In the spirit to hear more? Here are Heather and Hazel!
Q1: What’s the premise of your new book?
HW&HG: Pitched as The Crown meets When Harry Met Sally, Christmas with the Queen is a heartwarming historical novel, set during the early reign of Queen Elizabeth. A royal chef and a royal correspondent to the BBC who share a past, meet again unexpectedly in the halls of Sandringham and Buckingham Palace. Despite personal and professional heartache, Jack and Olive’s paths continue to cross over the following five Christmas seasons and they find themselves growing ever closer. Yet Olive carries the burden of a heavy secret… You also see the queen and Prince Philip moving through the background of the story. It’s very Christmasy, very cozy, and more than a little nostalgic in the best way.
Q2: What would you like people to know about the story itself?
HW&HG: What early readers have most loved about the book are the combined elements of the 1950s setting, the scenes written from the point of view of Queen Elizabeth, the ‘behind-the-scenes- look at life at Sandringham at Christmas, and the will they/won’t they romance between Olive and Jack. The story takes us from London’s Piccadilly to as far away as New Zealand and Antarctica! Lots of readers have also picked up on the culinary elements – how could we not lavish the story with lots of mouth-watering dishes when Jack, a chef from New Orleans, has joined the staff.
Q3: What do your characters have to overcome in this story? What challenge do you set before them?
HW&HG: As with all the best love stories, Jack and Olive’s relationship is complicated and messy. They experience a whole range of emotions during the five years when the main story of the book is set as well as a limited secondary timeline where you see our two main characters meet, the day the end of WWII is announced in the UK (Victory in Europe Day).
For Olive, an ambitious young woman at the BBC, she faces challenges of being taken seriously as a reporter and to be given the same opportunities as her male counterparts. Also a single mother, she faces […]
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We are thrilled to bring you a sneak-peek at the new book from bestselling author and WU contributor Randy Susan Meyers. The book, THE MANY MOTHERS OF IVY PUDDINGSTONE, releases this coming Tuesday (October 29th). What’s the pitch?
“The Many Mothers of Ivy Puddingstone delves into the intricate and nuanced dance of familial love and communal ties through the lens of sociopolitical upheaval from the 1960s to the present day, examining which sacrifices are worth the price.”
Want to hear more? Here’s Randy!
Q1: What’s the premise of your new book?
RSM: Annabel’s journey begins in 1964 when she heads to Mississippi for Freedom Summer. There, the disappearance of her first love sparks a relentless fight for justice that will define her life. Years later, she, her husband, and four other couples—and their growing families— create a political collective, sharing a sprawling Boston house they name Puddingstone.
As social upheaval reaches a boiling point, the group relocates their children to the safety of rural Vermont, far from the chaos. The parents continue their activism, rotating visits to Vermont to care for the kids.
But not all threats come from the outside. Annabel’s daughter, Ivy, longs for something more than the patchouli-scented, organic world of Vermont. She craves normalcy, but most of all, she craves Annabel’s attention. When a cataclysmic event shatters their world, Ivy is forced to reckon with the limits of her many mothers and fathers.
The Many Mothers of Ivy Puddingstone explores the fragile, tangled threads of familial love and communal bonds. Set against a backdrop of cultural upheaval from 1964 to 2020, the novel follows the five couples of Puddingstone and their seven children for decades, questioning which sacrifices are worth the price.
Q2: What would you like people to know about the story itself?
The Many Mothers of Ivy Puddingstone is an intensely personal story told from two points of view: a mother and a daughter. As I wrote, I wrestled with a series of questions, the ‘what ifs’ I wanted to explore:
Being terrified for your young children’s safety after the government’s ROTC shoots students? Would a mother believe it was better to send her children away—taking turns with childcare—as the price for building a better world?
What could go wrong if you have seven children, five mothers, five fathers, and one idyllic commune?
Would a daughter, who craved nothing but a normal life, forgive her parents after the idyll explodes with a cataclysmic catastrophe?
*What happened to all the members of these five families from 1964 to 2020?
Q3: What do your characters have to overcome in this story? What challenge do you set before them?
Annabel must juggle two opposing forces: her unshakable commitment to social justice and her love for her children. She embarks on an experiment, believing she can have it all—by sending her children to a communal childcare arrangement in rural Vermont while she continues the […]
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We’re delighted to bring you an interview with longtime WU contributor and author Greer Macallister to highlight her upcoming release THE THIRTEENTH HUSBAND, out Tuesday, August 6th. The book is getting plenty of terrific pre-release buzz, including this:
“Greer Macallister’s Aimee Crocker is exactly the kind of sassy, strong heroine you want to stay up late into the night gabbing with – and soaking up every detail of her epic life. I loved adventuring with Aimee from San Francisco to India and Japan, walking in the shoes of a woman who lived and loved life to the fullest. This is compulsively readable historical fiction!” ― Kerri Maher, USA Today bestselling author of All You Have to Do is Call
Sounds like the perfect summer read, doesn’t it? Ready to hear more? Here’s Greer:
Q1: What’s the premise of your new book?
GM: The Thirteenth Husband was inspired by Aimée Crocker, the most scandalous tattoo-sporting railroad heiress of the Gilded Age. She spent the better part of five decades traveling the world, spending millions, and marrying and divorcing a succession of men in their twenties. I actually had to tone down her story to make it believable fiction. She was something else.
Q2: What would you like people to know about the story itself?
GM: There’s more to Aimée than meets the eye — people think of her as confident and devil-may-care, but her public shenanigans are masking private pain. She’s also reckoning with a prophecy that told her that her thirteenth husband would bury her, and haunted by the ghostly presence of a woman in white that appears to her before times of great tragedy in her life. (Both of which are based on incidents from the real Aimée’s life!)
Q3: What do your characters have to overcome in this story? What challenge do you set before them?
GM: Aimée says early in the novel that she gets no sympathy in the press because people feel like the rich don’t have problems. Her money gave her the kind of freedom few women of her era enjoyed, but she was judged harshly in public and private for the choices she made. Her story has heartbreak, loss, scandal, death, secrets, poisoning, shame, custody battles, and more — a lot to overcome.
Q4: What unique challenges did this book pose for you, if any?
GM: My previous biographical historical novel was based on the life of Kate Warne, a pioneering private detective who left no letters or diaries and barely graces the historical record. Aimée, on the other hand, was quoted widely in the newspapers of her day and even wrote a (highly selective) memoir. Figuring out when to take Aimée’s word for something and when to leave it out if it couldn’t be substantiated was a constant challenge throughout the writing process.
Q5: What has been the most rewarding aspect of having written this book?
GM: After writing historical fiction for the better part of a decade, I shifted to writing epic fantasy, and it was such a relief to really fully make things up! But when I got the idea to write about Aimée and shift back to historical fiction, I was worried I’d have trouble operating within the constraints of history again. Instead, it felt natural, and because I was […]
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We’re delighted to bring you an interview with longtime WU contributor and prolific author Barbara O’Neal, to highlight her upcoming release MEMORIES OF THE LOST., which releases on Tuesday (July 30). As they so often are, Barbara’s new one looks like the perfect summer read. Just when we thought we couldn’t get any more excited, we saw this:
“Just when I thought Barbara O’Neal couldn’t get any better…she does. Memories of the Lost is a study in pitch-perfect storytelling; an intriguing mystery and a tender love story, meticulously woven around a pair of protagonists who feel so wonderfully real I suspect I’ll miss them for a very long time. I couldn’t read this novel fast enough and yet the story never felt rushed, and ends just as beautifully as her characters—and her readers—deserve.” —Barbara Davis, bestselling author of The Keeper of Happy Endings
Want to know more? Here’s Barbara!
Q1: What’s the premise of your new book?
Barbara O’Neal: An artist visits a friend’s gallery opening and sees a painting that triggers a series of fugue states that upend her life and everything she thinks she knows about herself. Her mother died a few months ago, and all of her friends are worried about her, but Tillie is sure the slips in reality are trying to tell her something. When she finds a newspaper article in her mother’s things that throws her whole life into question, she heads to Devon, England to see what might be going on.
Adding another layer is the charming but blurred-out meditation teacher who appears along with the painting, as if he’s a mythical guide to help her along the way.
Q2: What would you like people to know about the story itself?
BO: Memories of the Lost deals with so many of my favorite things! Memory and secrets, the power of art, and the mysterious fates that link us to the people in our lives. Tillie knows something is amiss, and she has only herself, the messages in her paintings, and Liam to help her.
At one point in my career, I thought I might end up writing fantasy, and adored writers like Terri Windling, whose blog Myth and Moor is one of my favorite spots on the internet. (Tillie is named for her dog.) The fairy tale imagery and spirit in this book stem from that part of myself.
Q3: What do your characters have to overcome in this story? What challenge do you set before them?
BO: Tillie is grieving her mother, an eccentric recluse, and trying to make sense of her fugue states, losses of memory that end up showing her the way. Liam, her partner in the search, is a successful celebrity meditation teacher who desperately wants off the hamster wheel he’s inadvertently created.
Q4: What unique challenges did this book pose for you, if any?
BO: All books are challenging, each in their own maniacal way. In memories, the challenge was holding the different threads and secrets in proper order and in the right revelatory order. It also decided, 3/4 of the way through (with deadline looming) that it had to be told in third person, rather than the alternating first person POV it started in. So much work, but the book, as usual, was right.
Q5: What has […]
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We 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 […]
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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 […]
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We’re elated to bring you an exciting first look at the debut novel of WU contributor Kasey LeBlanc! What’s the pitch?
Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda meets the speculative twists of The Night Circus in this standout debut YA novel, about a boy who visits the magic-filled circus of his dreams each night in order to escape his daily reality where his trans identity remains a secret.
As you may recall, Kasey was an Alice Hoffman fellow with GrubStreet’s Novel Incubator program and a finalist for the Boston Public Library Writer-in-Residence program, and his debut is getting great buzz. Ready for a closer look? Here’s Kasey!
Q1: What’s the premise of your new book?
Kasey LeBlanc: Flyboy tells the story of Asher, a closeted trans boy going into his senior year at a new Catholic high school, who begins dreaming of a magical circus where he is seen as the boy he truly is. But when his brusque-yet-attractive trapeze rival Apollo walks out of Asher’s dreams and into his classroom, Asher realizes that the circus, his one true refuge, might be more real than he’d believed, and less permanent than he’d hoped– and he’ll do anything to make it stay.
Q2: What would you like people to know about the story itself?
KL: When I realized I was trans back in the summer of 2017, one of the first things I did was look for books to help me make sense of my experience, and to help me feel seen as a trans guy. As a reader and writer of fiction for young people, I turned first to young adult and middle grade novels, and was surprised by how few there were. The ones that did exist felt more like they were written about trans people, rather than for us. FLYBOY, and Asher’s story, arose from my desire to write the book I couldn’t find for myself. Fortunately in 2024 the publishing landscape is so different than it was just six or seven years ago and there are so many wonderful trans books being published and so many more opportunities for people to see us, and for us to see ourselves as the heroes of our own stories. Asher’s story is a hopeful coming-of-age story filled with, I hope, as much magic as there is struggle, and I hope that it is one that resonates with readers of all kinds.
Q3: What do your characters have to overcome in this story? What challenge do you set before them?
KL: Oh so many challenges! My poor characters. But in all seriousness, I think in telling a story like this one, it was important for me that my characters be confronted with challenges that are more internal, that they can overcome, and challenges that are external, that they might not be able to overcome. For instance, we learn quite early on just how large of a presence his paternal grandparents play in his life. They have very large expectations of who they want Asher to be, and are willing to provide the money to back those expectations up, but ultimately only Asher can decide whether he’s willing to live a life so contrary to who he truly is. What he can’t control is whether or not his grandparents can […]
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We 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, […]
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