Blog mama Kath is gearing up for the release of the next title in the First Daughter series (written as Cassidy Calloway).  SECRETS OF A FIRST DAUGHTER releases September 1 by Harper Teen.  We asked Kath to do a Take 5 to share with WU readers a little bit more about the National Disaster known as Morgan Abbott, [...]

Maybe This Time is Jennifer Crusie’s new book, landing on bookshelves everywhere today. This is her first solo novel since the wildly popular Bet Me, which won the 2004 RITA.) Maybe This Time is smart and quirky, brimming with the trademark Crusie repartee. Here, with a Take 5 to whet your appetites, is Jennifer Crusie. [...]

Please welcome Inara Scott back to WU.  Last month, Inara guest blogged with us, and the response was so good, we asked if she would do a Take 5 interview with us on her debut THE DELCROIX ACADEMY, which releases tomorrow.  Enjoy! Q: What is the premise of your new book?  Dancia Lewis is a girl with [...]

In Part I of WU’s interview with MacAllister Stone, owner and CEO of Absolute Write, we spoke of minions, the challenges involved in herding 25,000 writers towards publication, and threats such as lawsuits.  In an abrupt and unforeseen twist, this concluding post will cover more optimistic territory. Jan for Writer Unboxed: Is there a special meaning to the avatar you use on AW and Twitter? (top [...]

As promised in our squee post earlier this week, contributor Sophie Masson found time to squeeze in a Take 5 Q&A on her new release THE MADMAN OF VENICE as she traveled back from Paris to Australia.  Congratulations, Sophie! TAKE 5 with Sophie Masson  Q:  What is the premise of your new book? It is [...]

I’ve made no secret about my gratitude for certain literary communities — among them, Absolute Write . Its forums are a sprawling network where one can as easily receive critique on erotica as greeting cards; speak to industry people, such as agents or small press publishers; or joke around with other, writerly loons. (Guess where you’ll [...]

Today’s Take 5 interview is with internationally bestselling crime novelist Karin Slaughter.  You may remember that Karin guest posted with us in June.  Her latest release, BROKEN, is another page-turning suspense novel.  Set in rural Georgia, when Dr. Sara Linton returns home to Grant County, Ga., for Thanksgiving, she hopes to steer clear of the [...]

“Are you insane, Bet?” Not exactly the reaction I’d been hoping for when I made my proposal to Will, I’ll grant you.  Still, I tried to tell myself it was a start.  At least my idea was now out there, loose in the world. Turn the clock back a minute or two . . . [...]

Writing in one genre is hard enough, but novelist Lauren Baratz-Logsted is one of those rare writers who works in three genres: adults,  teens, and children.  Break it down further, and Baratz-Logsted can transition between gritty urban fiction and sophisticated Victorian-era mysteries.  In an industry that asks writers to develop a market-friendly identity and stick to it like glue, Lauren [...]

If you missed part 1 of my interview with novelist and fab human being Randy Susan Meyers, click HERE, then come back. Randy’s debut, The Murderer’s Daughters, is a compelling read, a fascinating character study of two girls and the choices they make into adulthood following the murder of their mother by their father. I’m [...]

It’s going to be obvious that I kinda love Randy Susan Meyers. Randy and I “met” on Twitter. I knew of her, peripherally, through the online writers’ group Backspace, but it wasn’t until Twitter that I felt a true sense for who she was as a person. Generous. Smart. Kind. I was happy to become [...]

It’s been a little while since we’ve done a Take 5 interview, and we’re thrilled to be able to do one with guest contributor Kay Cassidy.  Kay’s YA novel for teens, The Cinderella Society, released in April.  Kay is the founder of the national Great Scavenger Hunt ContestTM reading program for kids and teens and the host of the [...]

After I trapped three scientists in a fire I set in a brothel, enlisted them in the theft of a stampeding wagon, got them arrested by the French secret police, and then mired them in a mystic mission for Bonaparte, they began to question my judgement. It’s a helluva hook, isn’t it?  And William Dietrich [...]

In my other life, I studied Early Modern European history with an emphasis on the Age of Fighting Sail.  So I felt my heart beat a little faster when the opportunity came to interview William Dietrich on his latest historical adventure novel, The Barbary Pirates.  Dietrich is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and prolific novelist.  His [...]

WU contributor Ann Aguirre has a new book–the second in her Corine Solomon series, Hellfire. We know you have inquiring minds; we know you want to know. So we asked Ann five questions about her new book to learn more. Q: What’s the premise of your new book? AA: I’m still a redhead. Before we [...]