Queries, Qualms, & Quirks

Author and Poet Donna Gordon joins Queries, Qualms, & Quirks this week to discuss switching from poetry to prose, the impact of mentors, a long interruption of her writing career, how her visual art helps her writing, needing to write, learning to put herself first, going from being a writer to an author, the stamina it takes to write and sell a book, and collaborating with people who can see things you can't see. Donna Gordon is a Cambridge, MA-based writer. She graduated from Brown, and was then a Stegner Fellow at Stanford, a PEN Discovery, and Ploughshares Discovery. She was a 2017 Tennessee Williams Scholar at the Sewanee Writers Conference, and a fellow at the Vermont Studio Center in 2017 and 2018. She received the 2018 New Letters Publication Award for What Ben Franklin Would Have Told Me, which has been named by the Independent Book Review as one of the top 45 they're excited about for 2022. Donna: Query | Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Amazon | Bookshop | IndieBound QQQ Home Base | Support on Patreon Read the full transcript. If links aren't clickable, find them here: https://bit.ly/qqqdonnagordon This page includes affiliate links. Please use them if you’d like to support the show.

Women’s Fiction Author Roselle Lim joins Queries, Qualms, & Quirks this week to discuss parting with an agent, querying a book 120 times, how debuts are like weddings, crying on release day, worrying about things you can't control, how changing for people who hate your book alienates the people who love your book, and the importance of both writing and non-writing community Roselle Lim is the critically acclaimed author of Natalie Tan’s Book of Luck and Fortune, Vanessa Yu’s Magical Paris Tea Shop and the upcoming Sophie Go’s Lonely Hearts Club. She lives on the north shore of Lake Erie and always has an artistic project on the go. Roselle: Query | Website | Twitter | Instagram | Amazon | Bookshop | IndieBound | Libro FM QQQ Home Base | Support on Patreon Read the full transcript. If links aren't clickable, find them here: https://bit.ly/qqqroselle This page includes affiliate links. Please use them if you’d like to support the show.

SFF Author Erin Fulmer joins Queries, Qualms, & Quirks this week to discuss the importance of community, realizing writing is not such a solitary pursuit, doing things out of order, marketing as a small press author, worrying about choosing the wrong path, and the pros and cons of going with a small press. Erin Fulmer is an attorney by day, author of science fiction and fantasy by night. A 2020 Pitch Wars alumna, she lives in Northern California with her husband and cats. CAMBION’S BLOOD, the second book in her urban fantasy series and sequel to her debut CAMBION’S LAW, is out now. Erin: Query | Website | Twitter | Instagram | Facebook | Amazon | Bookshop | IndieBound Read the full transcript QQQ Home Base | Support on Patreon If links aren't clickable, find them here: https://bit.ly/qqqfulmer Queries, Qualms, & Quirks asks published authors to share their successful query letter and discuss their journey from first spark to day of publication. This page includes affiliate links. Please use them if you’d like to support the show.

Mystery Author Sandra Block joins Queries, Qualms, & Quirks this week to discuss querying with stamps, taking a 15 year break, reading the book on common mistakes (see link below), multiple R&Rs to get a book deal, dealing with the lack of control over the publishing process, being kind with herself, and carving out time to write. Sandra A. Block graduated from college at Harvard, then returned to her native land of Buffalo, New York for medical training and never left. She is a practicing neurologist and proud Sabres fan, and lives at home with her husband, two children, and impetuous yellow lab. Her work has been published in the Washington Post. Little Black Lies is her debut, a finalist in the International Thriller Awards, and The Girl Without a Name and The Secret Room are the other books in the Zoe Goldman series, and What Happened That Night her stand-a-lone. Girl Overboard is her first Young Adult thriller. Sandra: Query | Website | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | Amazon | Bookshop | IndieBound | Libro FM Thanks, But This Isn’t For Us See full transcript QQQ Home Base | Support on Patreon If links aren't clickable, find them here: https://bit.ly/qqqblock This page includes affiliate links. Please use them if you’d like to support the show.

Young Adult Author Jamie Beth Cohen joins Queries, Qualms, & Quirks this week to discuss the strawberry shortcake origin story, going against a mentor's advice, the ups and downs of going with a small press, having more to say than having time to write it down, and getting a lot out of Pitch Wars without having been selected. Jamie Beth Cohen is a writer, speaker, and storyteller who lives in Pennsylvania. Her words have appeared in The Washington Post, HuffPost, Salon, Teen Vogue, and several other outlets. She is the author of WASTED PRETTY and LIMINAL SUMMER. When not working, writing, or spending time with her family, she mentors an incarcerated writer and novice storytellers. Jamie: Query | Website | Twitter | Instagram | Podcast | Amazon | Bookshop | IndieBound See full transcript. QQQ Home Base | Support on Patreon If links aren't clickable, find them here: https://bit.ly/qqqcohen This page includes affiliate links. Please use them if you’d like to support the show.

Gothic Fiction Author Paulette Kennedy joins Queries, Qualms, & Quirks this week to discuss letting go of perfectionism to get a draft done, the impact of her first critical critique, learning about publishing on twitter, how much influence Marketing has on publishing a book, her favorite marketing activities, wanting to "get an A" on her first draft, and having a #pitmad twitter pitch go viral. Originally from the Ozarks, Paulette Kennedy now divides her time between her hometown of Springfield, Missouri and a quiet suburb of Los Angeles. When she isn't writing, she enjoys tending to her garden, knitting, and finding unique vintage treasures at thrift stores and flea markets. Paulette is the author of Parting the Veil and The Witch of Tin Mountain. Paulette: Query | Website | Twitter | Instagram | Amazon | Bookshop | IndieBound QQQ Home Base | Support on Patreon If links aren't clickable, find them here: https://bit.ly/qqqpaulette This page includes affiliate links. Please use them if you’d like to support the show.

Historical Fiction Author Addison Armstrong joins Queries, Qualms, & Quirks this week to discuss predicting her jobs in Pre-K, querying too soon due to excitement, graduating college with a literary agent, taking her book offer call with a broom in one hand, being surprised by a two-book contract, how a book contract changed her feelings towards writing, and worrying that the first book contract was a fluke. Addison Armstrong is a historical fiction author and a third-grade teacher. She grew up in south Florida and currently lives in Nashville, TN with her husband. She started writing The Light of Luna Park in 2019 during her junior year of college and had it published with Putnam in 2021. Her next novel, The War Librarian, will come out in August of this year (2022). Addison: Query | Website | Twitter | Instagram | Amazon | Bookshop | IndieBound | Libro FM QQQ Home Base | Support on Patreon If links aren't clickable, find them here: https://bit.ly/qqqarmstrong This page includes affiliate links. Please use them if you’d like to support the show.

Young Adult Author Crystal Maldonado joins Queries, Qualms, & Quirks this week to discuss boyband fan fiction, the one book that made her feel like there might be room for her stories, googling everything, being shy about being a writer, her actual rejections from publishers, covid interfering with her publishing schedule, her book baby taking a backseat to her human baby, being grateful for the publishing delay, wishing she had shared her writing sooner, and sending Roxane Gay a copy of her book. Crystal Maldonado is a young adult author writing inclusive stories about fat, brown girls. Her debut novel, Fat Chance, Charlie Vega, is a 2021 New England Book Award winner, while her newest, No Filter and Other Lies, explores teenage life in the social media age. She lives in Massachusetts with her husband, daughter, and dog. Crystal: Query | Website | Twitter | Instagram | Facebook | Amazon | Bookshop | IndieBound | Libro FM QQQ Home Base | Support on Patreon If links aren't clickable, find them here: https://bit.ly/qqqmaldonado This page includes affiliate links. Please use them if you’d like to support the show.

Book Club Fiction Jessica Strawser joins Queries, Qualms, & Quirks this week to discuss not believing in her own writing, being inspired by the authors she interviewed, realizing successful authors are regular people, the difference between knowing what a good query letter is and writing your own, the overlap in publishing schedules, worrying you've wasted so much time, advice from Debbie Macomber, and not being afraid to take a pause. Jessica Strawser is editor-at-large for Writer's Digest, contributing editor at Career Authors, and author of five popular book club novels, including the Book of the Month selection NOT THAT I COULD TELL. Most recently, A MILLION REASONS WHY released in a new paperback edition, and her latest, THE NEXT THING YOU KNOW, hit shelves March 22 from St. Martin’s Press. Jessica: Query | Website | Twitter | Instagram | Amazon | Bookshop | IndieBound | Libro FM QQQ Home Base | Support on Patreon If links aren't clickable, find them here: https://bit.ly/qqqstrawser This page includes affiliate links. Please use them if you’d like to support the show.

Young Adult Author Carolyn Tara O’Neil joins Queries, Qualms, & Quirks this week to discuss dreaming of being Carolyn Keene, spending five years drafting and revising her debut, reading the entire Query Shark blog, adding a POV to increase request rate by 600%, how much work her agent actually does, writing one day a week, worrying of never writing something worthy, not beating yourself up, and believing in your own writing. Carolyn Tara O’Neil grew up in a tiny New York City apartment filled with thousands of books. Every Friday she went to the public library for even more reading material. Since then, Carolyn has dedicated her career to the education and rights of young people. She loves to travel, study languages, and spend endless hours discussing TV, books, great hiking trails, and how we can work together to build a more equal society. Her debut novel, DAUGHTERS OF A DEAD EMPIRE, is set during the Russian Revolution and was published in 2022 by Roaring Brook Press. Carolyn: Query | Website | Twitter | Instagram | Amazon | Bookshop | IndieBound | Libro FM Ira Glass on the Creative Gap QQQ Home Base | Support on Patreon If links aren't clickable, find them here: https://bit.ly/qqqcarolyn This page includes affiliate links. Please use them if you’d like to support the show.

Young Adult Author Margie Fuston joins Queries, Qualms, & Quirks this week to discuss having both a great and a terrible Pitch Wars experience, ditching a PhD to write a book, selling a trunked novel after getting an agent, R&Rs, making the one change she said she'd never make, fear of social media, taking care of your mental and physical health. Margie Fuston lives in the woods of California and spends all her time wrangling a herd of cats and helping her nephews hunt ghosts, pond monsters, and mermaids. She’s the author of Vampires, Hearts, and Other Dead Things and Cruel Illusions. Margie: Query | Website | Twitter | Instagram | Amazon | Bookshop | IndieBound | Libro FM QQQ Home Base | Support on Patreon If links aren't clickable, find them here: https://bit.ly/qqqfuston This page includes affiliate links. Please use them if you’d like to support the show.

Science-Fiction Author Jackson Ford joins Queries, Qualms, & Quirks this week to discuss almost giving up, being encouraged by a friend, having his first series not meet sales expectations, transitioning from journalism to fiction, and not spending enough time with his characters. Jackson Ford is a South African author living in Vancouver. He is the author of the Frost Files series, starring the psychokinetic government agent Teagan Frost. Jackson: Query | Website | Twitter | Instagram | Amazon | Bookshop | IndieBound | Libro FM QQQ Home Base | Support on Patreon If links aren't clickable, find them here: https://bit.ly/qqqford This page includes affiliate links. Please use them if you’d like to support the show.

Young Adult Author Sarah Dass joins Queries, Qualms, & Quirks this week to discuss letting go of a book to move forward, the importance of finishing books, her debut group, a disastrous first book, amassing 100 rejections, Pitch Wars, and getting published with your third book. Sarah Dass was born in Trinidad but has lived in Tobago since she was two years old. She works as an office administrator by day and writes stories about the Caribbean by night. When she's not writing, she's reading or taking walks with her dachshund, Stella. Sarah's debut novel, Where the Rhythm Takes You, is inspired by her childhood, spent in a seaside hotel. Sarah: Query | Website | Twitter | Instagram | Amazon | Bookshop | IndieBound | Libro FM QQQ Home Base | Support on Patreon If links aren't clickable, find them here: https://bit.ly/qqqdass This page includes affiliate links. Please use them if you’d like to support the show.

Book Club Fiction Author Lyn Liao Butler joins Queries, Qualms, & Quirks this week to discuss the book that started as a blog, dissecting her favorite books to learn to write, doing an R&R, not getting into Pitch Wars (for a great reason), reviving trunked novels, post-publication uncertainty, traveling for research, the importance of community, and the benefit of an agent in your corner. Lyn Liao Butler was born in Taiwan and moved to the States when she was seven. Before becoming an author, she was a professional ballet and modern dancer, and is still a personal trainer and fitness and yoga instructor. She is an avid animal lover who fosters dogs and volunteers with rescues. When she is not torturing clients or talking to imaginary characters, Lyn enjoys spending time with her FDNY husband, their son (the happiest little boy in the world), and their three stubborn dachshunds; sewing for her Etsy shop; and trying complicated yoga poses on a stand-up paddleboard. So far, she has not fallen into the water. Lyn: Query | Website | Twitter | Instagram | Amazon | Bookshop | IndieBound | Libro FM QQQ Home Base | Support on Patreon If links aren't clickable, find them here: https://bit.ly/qqqbutler  This page includes affiliate links. Please use them if you’d like to support the show.

Nonfiction Author Jessica P. Pryde joins Queries, Qualms, & Quirks this week to discuss starting in fanfic, the magic of writing dates, getting an agent without querying, learning how to write a nonfiction proposal, long waiting periods, worrying about the concept matching the reality, narrowing your audience to make your book better, and more. Jessica P. Pryde is a Contributing Editor for Book Riot and cohost of the When In Romance podcast. Her book, Black Love Matters: Real Talk on Romance, Being Seen, and Happily Ever Afters, is a collection of essays about the consumption of romantic media and the Black experience. Jessica: Website | Twitter | Instagram | Amazon | Bookshop | IndieBound | Libro FM QQQ Home Base | Support on Patreon If links aren't clickable, find them here: https://bit.ly/qqqpryde This page includes affiliate links. Please use them if you’d like to support the show.