This week’s guest is Delise Torres (One Tough Cookie, Alcove Press, July 2023). Described as a Latina Fleabag, Delise’s novel is both a women’s fiction and a romance and she purposely made choices in both character and venue to make it more appealing in the marketplace before she queried. We discuss the revisions both her agent and later her publisher asked for, the challenges of marketing a book when you live overseas, and how Delise benefitted from several programs WFWA offered including critique groups, the mentor program, and the annual pitch event.

Delise Torres grew up in Puerto Rico, watching telenovelas and re-enacting scenes with her Barbies. Once she outgrew her dolls, she turned to daydreaming, and it wasn’t until her late thirties when she finally put her own stories to paper, and her passion for writing was born. She has a PhD in Food Science and former work experience as a quality assurance manager in the food industry. When not writing, you can find her trying to time-manage her life, singing, reading, and streaming shows and movies. She lives in Germany with her daughter and German husband.

To learn more about Delise, click here.

Our guest this week is Kristin Kisska (The Hint of Light, Lake Union Publishing, August 2023). Listen to hear how two revisions at the tail end of the publishing process unlocked deeper meanings in her novel, how the grief in the story had to be toned down, and the thought-provoking question Kristin uses at book clubs to promote discussion. We discuss the pluses and minuses of publishing with an Amazon imprint and how placing short stories in anthologies benefitted not only her networking efforts but her learning curve about the publishing industry.

KRISTIN KISSKA used to be a finance geek, complete with her MBA and Wall Street pedigree, but now she is a self-proclaimed #SuspenseGirl. She has contributed over a dozen short suspense stories to crime and mystery anthologies. Her debut novel, The Hint of Light, was an Agatha Award finalist for Best First Novel. Kristin is a Women’s Fiction Writers Association, Mystery Writers of America, International Thriller Writers, Sisters in Crime, and James River Writers member. Kristin lives in Richmond, Virginia, with her family and their moody tabby cat, Boom. She loves hearing from friends, readers, and book clubs.

To learn more about Kristin, click here.

This week’s guest is Jude Hopkins (Babe in the Woods, The Wild Rose Press, June 2023). We discuss how women often make poor life decisions when it comes to relationships, how finding the right developmental editor led to rearranging her opening chapters which led to an offer and how challenging it is to market a debut novel. Then we segue into the phenomenon of people “wanting” to write a book but letting life get in the way and the messages Jude uses to avoid that kind of procrastination in her own writing process.

Jude Hopkins is author of Babe in the Woods, her debut novel published by Wild Rose Press in 2023. She has also written various essays, including one published in The Los Angeles Times and another about the need for self-confidence in telling a story, published in Women Writers, Women’s Books. She was one of the runners-up in Proximity Magazine’s 2018 Personal Essay Contest, judged by Hanif Abdurraqib, for her essay “The Diagnosis.” Her poetry has appeared in California Quarterly, Timber Creek Review, Gyroscope Review—and soon to be in Witcraft and The Orchards Poetry Journal.

To learn more about Jude, click here.