The fall I moved back to Brooklyn after finishing my MFA program, The Cut published an article that sent a shiver through the city. It recounted how a family in a Jersey suburb received mysterious and sinister letters, so sinister that they abandoned their expensive home and sued the former owners. 

While many readers launched into speculation about who wrote the letters, I was investing my energy elsewhere. Desperate to start my literary career, I spent my days sending my first novel Psycho Loser out to countless agents while juggling two substitute teacher jobs. Although I understood most people’s desire to identify the letter-writer (I love a good whodunnit), what intrigued me was the writer's talents. I mean, look at these lines.

"Do you need to fill the house with the young blood I requested? Better for me. Was your old house too small for the growing family? Or was it greed to bring me your children? Once I know their names I will call to them and draw them too [sic] me." 

Positively gothic! 

"The house is crying from all of the pain it is going through. You have changed it and made it so fancy. You are stealing it’s [sic] history. It cries for the past and what used to be in the time when I roamed it’s [sic] halls.” 

I would have killed to have written these words.

.

Sometimes, the possibility of discovering a sparkly new voice feels like the only thing that gets me out of bed in the morning. Now I don't even need to leave bed to get my fix. I hold my phone up to my face, and social media takes care of the rest.

Cathleen Allen a.k.a. timeline.alchemy, a self-proclaimed oracle, materialized on my feed this past fall.

Where do I even start with Allen’s voice? One caption reads: I’m a Connecticut hedge fund wife whose lifestyle was obliterated by sudden onset clairvoyance that started showing me evil spirits behind the veil.

Where else have you seen “hedge fund” in the same sentence as “evil spirits behind the veil"?

Her life didn’t her change. No, her “lifestyle” was “obliterated.” There’s an intensity to her words — “LIFETIMES of horrific karmic abuse” she writes in another reel — that clashes with the serene imagery she chooses to accompany them. Her visual aesthetic is rooted in realism (okay, luxurious realism, but still realism) yet she nonchalantly mentions exorcists and third eye openings. 

This practice of confidently mixing lingo from different worlds is a feature of some of my favorite writers’ voices. George Saunders is the first that comes to mind. This passage from his short story "Sea Oak" about a male stripper in a near-future dystopia is a good example:

Lloyd's finished. We give him a round of applause, and Frendt gives him a Farewell Pen and the contents of his locker in a trash bag and out he goes. Poor Lloyd. He's got a wife and two kids and a sad little duplex on Self-Storage Parkway…

…What a stressful workplace. The minute your Cute Rating drops you're a goner. Guests rank us as Knockout, Honeypie, Adequate, or Stinker. Not that I'm complaining. At least I'm working. At least I'm not a Stinker like Lloyd. I'm a solid Honeypie/Adequate, heading home with forty bucks cash.

Tobias Wolff explores the obsession with voice in his short story "Bullet to the Brain." The main character, Anders, a book critic, spends his dying moments remembering a turn of phrase he heard as a boy: 

Anders is strangely roused, elated, by those final two words, their pure unexpectedness and their music…

…The bullet is already in the brain; it won’t be outrun forever, or charmed to a halt. In the end, it will do its work and leave the troubled skull behind, dragging its comet’s tail of memory and hope and talent and love into the marble hall of commerce. That can’t be helped. But for now Anders can still make time. Time for the shadows to lengthen on the grass, time for the tethered dog to bark at the flying ball, time for the boy in right field to smack his sweat-blackened mitt and softly chant, They is, they is, they is.

My "They is" might be this line from Denis Johnson's short story "Two Men." The story's narrator, the incorrigible Fuckhead, shares that he made aggressive sexual advances towards a woman right before her husband showed up. Then out he comes this gem: 

The rest of the evening I wondered, every second, if he would come back with some friends and make something painful and degrading happen. 

This line is so special to me. I often post it to my Instagram stories with no context. Because it needs none. It encapsulates what I believe lies at the heart of every worthwhile fictional protagonist: a titillating cocktail of equal parts yearning and fear that life will have its way with them. "Oh, please don't let something painful and degrading happen to me. Not something that would change me forever. Not me. Please no."

.

In the process of writing this essay, I’ve tried to formulate a definition for voice. Something like: voice is how the impact of all the forces in your life - where you’re from, who educated you, what traumatized you — trickles out when you attempt to communicate with the world. Voice is psychological leakage.

My professor Steve Erickson told me George Saunders advised that writers should put all of themselves in their first novels. That your manuscript must be “demented by you." I agree. Whatever story pours forth from you should feel like it can’t have been wrought on this earth by anyone else but you. 

.

During the pandemic, I started following the account of a college student who worked part-time as a baker and spelled her name Isobel with an o instead of an a. I didn't covet her life, but I found myself enraptured by how she told the story of her daily routine. Her selection of moments from her day turned the mundane poetic. Driving to work before sunrise. Her pensive, unadorned face. Her puffy eyes scanning the road. Her red fingers drumming her steering wheel. Tying her apron behind her back then adjusting her messy bun. Egg yolk bubbling from the breakfast sandwich she made herself after she finished her shift. She never spoke, but her voice was unmistakable to me. Irreplaceable. I couldn't get enough.

This inspired me to approach social media as a new medium of narrative. Since 2020, I've created two interactive narratives. You can find them here and here. I hope more writers start to embrace social media's narrative potential.

But social media is performative and curated!

You mean like a novel?

Yes, but social media purports to capture real life.

Early epistolary novels used improbable framing devices to package their narratives. "Look at this intact stack of letters I stumbled upon! Let’s take a peek and see if there’s anything of interest within?"

Yes, but social media is voyeuristic! It's parasocial! Creepy!

Call it what you will. I hope I never lose my insatiable curiosity about other people. Not just what has happened to them. But how they choose to conceal and reveal this information whenever they open their mouth.

.

In his interview for the book The Film That Changed My Life: 30 Directors on Their Epiphanies in the Dark, John Waters shares the line from Wizard of Oz that had a profound impact on him:

When they throw the water on the witch, she says, “Who would have thought a good little girl like you could destroy my beautiful wickedness?”

That line inspired my life. I sometimes say it to myself before I go to sleep, like a prayer.

.

I'm not saying that, as a writer, you should consume social media.

I'm asking, as a writer, how can you resist?

Here we go again. Here we go again. Here we go again. Here we go again. Here we go again. Here we go again. Here we go again. Here we go again. Here we go again. Here we go again. Here we go again. Here we go again. Here we go again. Here we go again. Here we go again. Here we go again. Here we go again. Here we go again. Here we go again. Here we go again. Here we go again. Here we go again. Here we go again. Here we go again. Here we go again. Here we go again. Here we go again. Here we go again. Here we go again. Here we go again. Here we go again. Here we go again.

Let's see if this does it. Let's see if this does it. Let's see if this does it. Let's see if this does it. Let's see if this does it. Let's see if this does it. Let's see if this does it. Let's see if this does it. Let's see if this does it. Let's see if this does it. Let's see if this does it. Let's see if this does it. Let's see if this does it. Let's see if this does it. Let's see if this does it. Let's see if this does it. Let's see if this does it. Let's see if this does it. Let's see if this does it. Let's see if this does it. Let's see if this does it. Let's see if this does it. Let's see if this does it. Let's see if this does it. Let's see if this does it. Let's see if this does it. Let's see if this does it.

We are reading Sistah Samurai: A Champloo Novella, Tatiana Obey's Indie Ink Award winning novella and the first entry in The Champloo Mixes series. It is a feudal Japan inspired action fantasy that wears its anime influences proudly, an homage to Afro Samurai and Samurai Champloo, filtered through a voice that is unmistakably Black, unmistakably funny, and unmistakably tired of everybody's foolishness.

It's the first day of July and I know many of you are just getting started so this is a quick check-in on how it's going!

• What was your first impression of the protagonist?

• Which line made you laugh?

• Did the opening immediately hook you?

If you haven't done so already please join our Discord. If you are a BGN Sanctuary member, we are planning a virtual chat with Tatiana Obey herself. This will be scheduled in August.

This needs to be the last. This needs to be the last. This needs to be the last. This needs to be the last. This needs to be the last. This needs to be the last. This needs to be the last. This needs to be the last. This needs to be the last. This needs to be the last. This needs to be the last. This needs to be the last. This needs to be the last. This needs to be the last. This needs to be the last. This needs to be the last. This needs to be the last. This needs to be the last. This needs to be the last. This needs to be the last. This needs to be the last.

And here we go...

Test!

Happy July everyone!! We have our two winners for our July reads!

We will be doing a Hunger Games reread for the “fantasy/dystopian” category!! You’re also welcome to join if it’s your first time reading the series. It will be so fun to watch everyone read it for the first time too. It’s been around 15 years since I read these books so I am so excited to dive back in and then hopefully read the prequels for the first time afterwards!

Our horror pick for this month will me MOLKA!!! I am SO EXCITED!!

Please make sure to join my discord so that we can all discuss!! Happy reading

The Curse is real.

Here is the second line.

And another line.

And another line.

And another line.

And another line.

Hello friends!

I'm so excited to share my interview with Sara, the owner of Judging By The Cover. Located in San Dimas, California, Judging By The Cover is a cozy and welcoming woman- and Latina-owned independent bookstore that champions inclusivity and community. The bookstore celebrated its first anniversary on June 6th.

Q: What inspired you to open Judging By The Cover?

A: The catalyst was hearing that San Dimas Cake Co. might be closing.

I remember thinking it would be a shame to lose a small business, and it got me wondering what would happen to the space. I've always loved books, so I started looking into what it would take to open a bookstore. At first it was really just curiosity. I wasn't actively planning to open one, I was just exploring an idea that I couldn't get out of my head.

The more research I did, the more excited I became. Not just about books, but about what an independent bookstore could mean for a community.

I've worked behind a chair for years (I was and still am a full-time hairstylist, doing about 40 hours a week behind the chair), and one thing I've learned is that people are looking for connection. Some of the most meaningful conversations have happened when a service was technically over, but nobody was quite ready to leave because the conversation was too good.

I realized a bookstore could create those same opportunities for connection. People come in for books, but they stay for book clubs, author events, story times, workshops, and most importantly, conversations with other readers.

So while my love of books is what got me interested in opening a bookstore, creating a space where people could gather, connect, and feel welcome is what made me decide to actually do it.

Q: What has been one of your favorite and one of the most unexpected moments as a new bookstore owner?

A: One of my favorite things has been watching customers become friends with one another. We've had people meet at book club, exchange numbers, start attending events together, and build relationships outside of the store. That's incredibly gratifying because it means the bookstore is doing exactly what I hoped it would do.

The most unexpected thing has been how quickly people made us part of their lives. We have customers who stop in every week, bring visiting friends and family, or tell us, "I was driving by and just wanted to see what was new." I knew people liked books. I didn't realize how many people were looking for a place that felt like a home away from home.

Q: What books have your customers been most excited about?

A: It depends on who you ask! Our customers have pretty wide-ranging tastes, which keeps things fun.

Our romantasy readers are a force of nature, so authors like Callie Hart, Sophia St. Germain, Jennifer L. Armentrout, and Rachel Gillig are always generating excitement. On the romance side, Abby Jimenez, Ali Hazelwood, Carley Fortune, Melissa Marr, and Lana Ferguson are always being recommended from one reader to the next. Our thriller readers are always looking for the next book that's going to keep them up way too late.

One thing that makes me especially happy is seeing customers get excited about local authors. During our first year, about 10% of the books we sold were written by local authors, which is something I'm incredibly proud of. Watching readers discover authors from their own community has been an incredibly rewarding part of owning the bookstore.

Q: What are some of your go-to book recommendations?

A: This is the question every bookseller dreads because the answer is always, "it depends."

My favorite recommendation isn't a specific book, it's the process of figuring out what someone is looking for. Two people can ask for a thriller and want two completely different experiences.

That said, I find myself recommending What Lies in the Woods by Kate Alice Marshall quite a bit. I loved Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke and have been putting it into a lot of readers' hands lately. And if someone wants a romance recommendation, you can expect me to recommend anything by Ali Hazelwood, Alexis Daria, or The Best Worst Thing by Lauren Okie.

Honestly, though, if you ask me this question next week, you'll probably get a different answer. That's part of the fun.

Q: What are your hopes for the future of Judging By The Cover?

A: I hope we continue growing into an even bigger part of the community.

Of course I'd love to bring in more authors, expand our events, support more local writers and artists, and continue introducing people to books they might not have found otherwise.

But more than anything, I hope we remain a place people feel comfortable walking into.

Whether you're an avid reader who finishes a hundred books a year or someone who hasn't picked up a book since high school, I want Judging By The Cover to feel like a space where you belong.

If people continue to think of us as part of their routine and part of their community, I'll consider that a success.

Q: What advice would you give to anyone looking to expand their bookish community?

A: I'd encourage people to take a chance on attending something by themselves.

That might be a book club, an author event, a writing group, or even just spending a little extra time chatting with someone at their local bookstore (hint, hint) or library.

I know that can feel intimidating, but some of my favorite bookstore stories started with someone saying, "I almost didn't come tonight."

As a lifelong Pride & Prejudice fan (and therefore, naturally, a Bridget Jones's Diary fan), I joke that one of my talents is making introductions. Not necessarily in the matchmaking sense, but in the "you should meet this person, and here's a thoughtful detail about them" sense. Some of the best friendships I've watched form at the bookstore started because two people realized they loved the same genre, author, or book.

Books are a wonderful conversation starter. You don't have to become best friends overnight. Sometimes community starts with a single introduction and grows from there.

Q: You've said that Judging By The Cover is not only a bookstore but also "a place to belong." How have you approached crafting a warm and welcoming storytelling space?

A: Honestly, I think a lot of it comes down to the people.

I have an incredible team, and they're genuinely warm, welcoming people. We like talking about books, we like getting to know our customers, and we care about helping people find stories they'll love. I think customers can tell the difference between someone who's being friendly because it's their job and someone who's being friendly because they genuinely enjoy connecting with people.

At the same time, we've been intentional about creating a space that doesn't feel intimidating. We greet people when they come in, but we don't hover. We offer recommendations, but we don't make people feel judged for what they read. Whether your favorite book is a literary classic or a gargoyle romance, you're welcome here.

I've always believed there's no right way to be a reader. Some people read a hundred books a year. Some people listen exclusively to audiobooks. Some people are just getting back into reading after years away. All of them belong here. Books bring people through the door, but it's the people inside the store who make it feel like a place to belong.

Q: How do you approach curating your bookstore's selection?

A: I pay attention to what customers are requesting, what people are talking about in book club, what my booksellers are recommending, what local authors are writing, and what conversations are happening in the broader book world.

Of course we carry new releases and popular titles, but I also think a bookstore should create opportunities for discovery. There's something really rewarding about watching someone discover a book they never would have picked up on their own.

A bookstore owner's job isn't to convince people to read what she likes. If that were the case, this store would be primarily made up of psychological thrillers, rom-coms, and the most depressing nonfiction you've ever seen. My goal is to create a collection that reflects our community, introduces readers to new voices, and gives people plenty of opportunities to discover their next favorite book.

Q: Would you share more about connecting your community through your bookstore's events?

A: The events have become a huge part of what makes Judging By The Cover feel like Judging By The Cover.

When people think of bookstores, they often think about shelves full of books. I spend a surprising amount of time thinking about what happens beyond the shelves.

That's why we host book clubs, story times, author events, workshops, book swaps, walking clubs, local author markets, and what sometimes feels like an infinite number of other events. The goal isn't just to connect people with books, it's to create opportunities for people to connect with each other.

What I've learned is that books are often the starting point. Someone comes to a book club because they liked the book, but they come back because they enjoyed the conversation. Someone attends an author event and leaves with a new favorite writer, or a new friend.

The best indicator that an event was successful is when it technically ended twenty minutes ago and people are still standing around talking because nobody is quite ready to leave yet. That's usually when I know we've done something right.

Thank you so much to Sara for joining me in chatting about Judging By The Cover! 🫶

These are my thoughts.

Mordew. 

What - and I cannot stress this enough - the hell did I just read? In the best possible way, I have absolutely no idea. I love a weird book, this is not a secret. This book? I think Mordew maybe takes the weird book cake for me. 

I expected something completely different than I ended up getting, but my expectations being torn asunder in a way I wasn’t prepared for is always a delight for me. This book was a lot of things and no things at once. Phelby is, truly in the best way, a madman. If we put him and Hiron Ennes in a room, I’m not sure which one of them would blow the room up first. His brain and how he conceived of this story is something I am going to be so curious about for years to come. 

The story follows Nathan Treeves through this gritty, gothic world full of stratification and grim and visceral forms of magic I can’t really explain. Nathan’s father is gravely ill with lungworms slowly killing him, his mother tries to ship him off to a mysterious man only ever called The Master. A dead God imbues magic into everything making it dead-yet-alive. There are flukes, creatures living in the dead mud that can become anything, including people. Ghosts are real and they have strong opinions about our behavior. We have gillmen who are these froglike guards and the sister city of Malarkoi and the Mistress and firebirds slamming into a sea wall held fast by magic. 

This is the story of a young boy who never, from the start of his life, has any agency. He is always doing what he must and always kept in the dark. There are things about him he wants to know, but nobody will tell him. When he has enough, we watch this boy’s anger manifest in total destruction as a way to cope with loneliness, betrayal, and being used by people who were supposed to love him. Yet somehow, he still desperately wants to remain kind.

I’d liken this to Oliver Twist meets Tim Burton meets Alice in Wonderland then dip it in mud and scream into the sky. It’s such a bizarre cluster of things that it’s many things and none of those things all at once. The first two parts build out how this wild city of Mordew is kept moving through the magic of the Master. We see Nathan struggle with his father's illness, the rejection of his mother, and his found family of friends give him purpose. Then, the third introduces a new character after an event I fully expected to be the end of the book, only for it to split into one final breathless catapulting part I did not anticipate. 

And I haven’t even talked about Anaxomander the talking dog and his brother, the loyal Sirius. 

Anaxomander was a fascinating inclusion in this story and probably the one I enjoyed following the most. His very direct, matter-of-fact way of thinking and the insight Phelby gives us into how we anthropomorphize animals was such a wild ride. Every twist he set up paid off and made me gasp - though half the time I couldn't explain it if I tried. When I realized how Phelby leveraged language? I thought my brain was going to fall out of my ears. I love when authors dive headfirst into such an inventive use of words and comprehension to add depth to the story. 

I will say that it being so out there and full of strangeness did make it occasionally hard to follow at parts. Some scenes felt longer than they needed to be and I never felt like I fully understood exactly what was going on. What I anticipated from the blurb ended up not really being as essential to the story as I thought it might be, but that’s alright because blurbs are rarely accurate to the full story anyway. This is the first in a trilogy, so I am trying not to say that I didn’t get answers to all my questions because that’s the point of the other two books in a series. 

What I did get, however, was exactly what I asked for. A wild, bizarre story with a character trying to be soft in a hard, gritty world. Witnessing Nathan’s constant betrayal, his effort to stay a good person, the conflict between wanting to do right and being compelled to not was so interesting. It was a fantastic tension between young men as they want to be and young men as the expectation of society forces them to be. 

Phelby brought in wealth disparity and how the ability to suffer is, in itself, a power that many well-off people do not learn and cannot survive when it comes for them. Not in a noble sacrifice way, either, which I loved. He spoke of this disconnection as the thing that gives a religion power and if the poor and struggling turned that ability to survive towards the oppression of the merchant class, they would be unstoppable against them. He writes in such an effervescent way that makes the world feel tongue in cheek, horrible, and grotesquely whimsical with a way of making the storytelling itself feel like it breaks the fourth wall at poignant, thoughtful moments.

I really got hit with the heartbreak Nathan endured at the betrayals he experienced and how those shaped him into what he became, then also opened the door to him becoming something new again. The Mistress was such a wild character and the designs for these people in this horrible world are unlike anything I’ve ever read. My favorite part, though, is that still I have no idea who I am rooting for or who is in the right. This is a world without heroes, only a small handful of people who are trying to do their best and survive. 

Officially, the Ursula K. Le Guin Prize for Fiction is an annual $25,000 cash prize given to a writer for a single work of imaginative fiction. This award is intended to recognize those writers Ursula spoke of in her 2014 National Book Awards speech—realists of a larger reality, who can imagine real grounds for hope and see alternatives to how we live now.

Practically, it's a TBR for those of us who read sci-fi with purpose, with intent, with a critical reading eye looking for "the voices of writers who can see alternatives to how we live now, can see through our fear-stricken society and its obsessive technologies to other ways of being, and even imagine real grounds for hope." (-a quote from Ursula herself)

So without further ado, here's the shortlist for this year.

Audition by Pip Adam (Coffee House Press, June 10, 2025)

Three rom-com quoting MCs travel from incarceration to exile to a place beyond punishment. Audition explores carceral politics and the psychology of violence, and what healing from the harm of those systems might require in a world where embodiment and identity have lost all familiar forms.

Sunward by William Alexander (Saga Press. Sept 16, 2025)

What if robots needed to be raised? Weaving comedy with a vision of parental care that encompasses beings built as well as born, Alexander considers caretaking and community alongside power and resistance. In his future, another way of living is possible—though getting to it is never easy.

Call and Response by Christopher Caldwell (Neon Hemlock, Oct 14, 2025)

Caldwell's speculative and fantastical stories are grounded in the realities, dreams, struggles, and relationships that animate queer lives. Each tale takes seriously the interconnections of class, race, geography, gender, and sexuality—while making striking imaginative leaps into history, the present, and the future.

Midnight Timetable by Bora Chung, translated by Anton Hur (Algonquin, Sept 4, 2025)

This novel in ghost stories, with its haunted shoes and sheep and cats, gently suggests the degree to which humanity’s efforts to control the world are themselves figments and fantasies. Chung’s deep understanding of haunting—and of hierarchies, class, and gender—reminds us that we are a society haunted by its own cruelty, and, crucially, that we have other options.

The Works of Vermin by Hiron Ennes (Tor Books, Oct 14, 2025)

This story of revolution takes place in a city riddled with strange vermin, their exterminators, and a wealthy ruling class who are all but inescapable. Ennes's novel explores resistance, repression, cycles of violence, and the way art and culture are the materials of social change—but can also be key to the consolidation of power.

Notes from a Regicide by Isaac Fellman (Tor Books, April 15, 2025)

Notes from a Regicide is a multilayered, intimate history of two generations of trans characters in the distant (but strangely familiar) future. As Griffon Keming tries to understand his deceased and beloved second parents, Fellman’s narrative twines around art, revolution, disability, love, history, and the specific, often physical, cost of every kind of change.

Mad Sisters of Esi by Tashan Mehta (DAW Books, Sept 9, 2023)

Using myth, fictional scholarship, alchemy, folktales, and animism, Mehta creates a quantum form of storytelling that follows the relationship between two sets of sisters, generations and worlds apart. Mad Sisters of Esi builds upon itself, layer by rich narrative layer, weaving together an all-encompassing saga of grief, love, legacy, and creation.

One Message Remains by Premee Mohamed (Psychopomp, Feb 11, 2025)

In four loosely connected tales, Mohamed explores the way people—soldiers and civilians, bureaucrats and gallows-builders—live during wartime, occupation, and colonization. In one story, ghostly soldiers fight the destruction of their traditions; in another, a young woman finds resistance in the practice of her craft.

Slow Gods by Claire North (Orbit, Nov 18, 2025)

Admittedly the only one I've even heard of and read, this galaxy-spanning space opera explores the fraught, connected roles of power and love as a series of worlds face destruction. Through the perspective of Maw, who was once human but is now something else, capitalism, collective choice, fascism, gender, freedom, the necessity of art collide with the question of how we decide what—and who—matters.

Welcome to your exclusive deep dive into the world of Shepherd’s Grove!

DeAnna Kaye Fields is currently having a whirlwind summer with back-to-back releases. Below, she opens up about the emotional weight behind her newest characters, her "pantser" writing habits, and the incredible indie community that helped her bring these stories to life.

1. A Car with Personality

Q: In Golden Hour, Bellamy gives her heart to her patients, her friends, and her beloved Kia Soul named Colonel Mustard. Do you also give your cars dramatic names?

DeAnna: "My cars absolutely DO have dramatic names! In fact, Colonel Mustard was MY yellow Kia Soul, and I loved her! Had to feature her in my first book! My current car, an orange Nissan Rogue, is named Orange Crush!"

2. Real-Life Small Town Charm

Q: What is your absolute favorite thing about Kentucky small-town life that you knew you had to capture in your novels?

DeAnna: "In small-town Kentucky, you will inevitably run into someone you know at Walmart. And if you don’t, you’ll make small talk with someone in line. Or the cashier. Don’t even get me started on the church connections! I absolutely love that part of small-town life!"

3. The Ultimate Writing Fuel

Q: You describe yourself as "hopelessly addicted to Coca-Cola." Is it your ultimate writing fuel?

DeAnna: "Listen, Coca-Cola is now, and forever will be, my go-to drink. I have Coke Hey Dudes (so does Rowena in Grass Is Greener), and when Carnival Cruises switched from Coke to Pepsi about 8 years ago, I sent them a Facebook Message. Now, they have switched back to Coke. You’re welcome Carnival Cruisers!"

4. The Gateway Book

Q: What was the first book you remember reading that made you fall in love with reading?

DeAnna: "The Outsiders. Hands down. I loved that book so much that to this day, some 30 years later, I still cannot eat bologna because Ponyboy could no longer eat it."

5. The Comfort Read

Q: What is the one book you can re-read over and over again?

DeAnna: "This is going to sound odd, but it's Gone With the Wind. I like to escape back into Tara with Scarlett. I mean, Rhett Butler? Hello!"

6. The To-Be-Read Pile

Q: What exciting books are currently hiding in your own TBR pile?

DeAnna: "Valicity Elaine’s Withered Rose series, JB Juke’s Wen Rising... there’s honestly so many! I just went to Indy Lit Con ‘26 and found so many Indie authors I'm wanting to dig into!"

7. Building the Grove

Q: Golden Hour focuses on Edison and Bellamy, while Grass Is Greener shifts to Rowena and Luther. How do these two couples interact within the broader community?

DeAnna: "One of my favorite things about Shepherd's Grove is watching side characters grow into main characters. While Bellamy and Edison aren't front and center in Grass Is Greener, readers will still see familiar faces. Characters pop in and out of each other's lives just like they would in a real small town."

8. Balancing Light and Shadow

Q: In Grass Is Greener, you tackle heavy themes like grief and addiction recovery. How do you balance the cozy safety of a closed-door romance with these emotional struggles?

DeAnna: "No life is perfect, and I want to show that. There are happy, joyous moments in the midst of grief, addiction recovery, or other heavy elements. Love still blooms even if there’s fog or obstacles."

9. Pursuing the Dream

Q: What was the exact spark that made you say, 'It's time to sit down and write these stories'?

DeAnna: "My youngest daughter graduated and got a job and a boyfriend. She wasn’t around much, so I suddenly had more time on my hands. I decided to put that time to good use!"

10. Plotter vs. Pantser

Q: Do you outline everything or fly by the seat of your pants?

DeAnna: "Oh, I’m a pantser who sorta kinda knows the plot. Just today, I completely rewrote book 5 (including the title) while washing my hair! Sometimes the characters take over, but I try to reign them in!"

11. The Writing Setup & Routine

Q: Are you a desk-and-computer writer or a couch-and-laptop writer? Morning bird or night owl?

DeAnna: "I sit in the living room at a TV tray in a chair we got from my mother-in-law. I like being in the living room with my hubby. During the week, I write in the evenings as I still have a full-time job. Saturdays I tend to get started in the afternoons after my husband and I have finished our dilly-dallying."

12. The Hardest Part

Q: What comes easiest atmosphere, banter, or breakthroughs? And what makes you want to pull your hair out?

DeAnna: "It all drifts between easy and difficult. Sometimes I crack myself up with the banter; other times I’m stuck. The emotional breakthroughs can be tough. Book 3, Signed in Red, has some emotional elements that actually made me cry while writing them. That was… difficult."

13. The Cast

Q: If you could spend one day hanging out with any character from your upcoming books, who would it be?

DeAnna: "Grass Is Greener has a dog named Ivy she’s named after a dog we lost, IV. Honestly, I’d love to hang out with Luther’s girl and give her all the pets and cuddles."

14. Double Summer Celebrations

Q: With Golden Hour out July 1st and Grass Is Greener out September 1st, do you have any release-day traditions?

DeAnna: "Well, Golden Hour is my first, so no traditions yet! I am having a launch party at my favorite local bookstore, Main Book Hook, and I hope to make that a tradition! With signings and writing and editing, I may not see much sun this summer!"

A Final Word from DeAnna: "The indie author community is like none other. I've needed help from recommendations to KDP hiccups to joining lives, and multiple people from across all genres and continents have stepped up. They get nothing for it either, just my eternal gratitude. I'm blessed to be a part of this community!"

🔗 Connect with DeAnna Kaye Fields

• Official Website: www.dkfwrites.com

• Socials: @dkfwrites (Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Threads)

• Goodreads: Follow DeAnna's Reviews

Add the Shepherd's Grove Stories to your shelf:

• Read Golden Hour: Amazon Link

• Pre-order Grass Is Greener: Amazon Link

Today, we are featuring the delightful DeAnna Kaye Fields, an author who masterfully captures the warmth and quirkiness of Kentucky life in her romance novels.

If you have ever picked up Golden Hour or Grass Is Greener, you know her stories are packed with heart, humor, and characters that feel like old friends. We sat down with DeAnna to chat about everything from car names to the legendary Coke vs. Pepsi battle on the high seas.

Enjoy part one of our interview below!

1. A Car with Personality

Q: In Golden Hour, Bellamy gives her heart to her patients, her friends, and her beloved Kia Soul named Colonel Mustard. We have to know: do you also give your cars dramatic names, or did the inspiration for Colonel Mustard come from somewhere else?

DeAnna: "My cars absolutely DO have dramatic names! In fact, Colonel Mustard was MY yellow Kia Soul, and I loved her! Had to feature her in my first book! My current car, an orange Nissan Rogue, is named Orange Crush!"

2. Real-Life Small Town Charm

Q: Your bio mentions that Shepherd’s Grove is inspired by beautiful real-world Kentucky towns like Shepherdsville and Hillview. What is your absolute favorite thing about Kentucky small-town life that you knew you had to capture in your romance novels?

DeAnna: "In small-town Kentucky, you will inevitably run into someone you know at Walmart. And if you don’t, you’ll make small talk with someone in line. Or the cashier. Don’t even get me started on the church connections! I absolutely love that part of small-town life!"

3. The Ultimate Writing Fuel

Q: You describe yourself as hopelessly addicted to Coca-Cola, and a shared Coke even pops up as a sweet connection point in Grass Is Greener. Is an ice-cold Coke your ultimate writing fuel, or do you have a specific snack that helps you hit your daily word count?

DeAnna: "Listen, Coca-Cola is now, and forever will be, my go-to drink. I have Coke Hey Dudes (so does Rowena in Grass Is Greener), and when Carnival Cruises switched from Coke to Pepsi about 8 years ago, I sent them a Facebook Message. Now, they have switched back to Coke. You’re welcome Carnival Cruisers!"

4. The Gateway Book

Q: What was the first book you remember reading that made you absolutely fall in love with reading?

DeAnna: "The Outsiders. Hands down. I loved that book so much that to this day, some 30 years later, I still cannot eat bologna because Ponyboy could no longer eat it. That book has stayed with me all these years."

5. The Comfort Read

Q: What is the one book you can re-read over and over again and never get tired of?

DeAnna: "This is going to sound odd, but it's Gone With the Wind. I like to escape back into Tara with Scarlett. I mean, Rhett Butler? Hello!"

6. The To-Be-Read Pile

Q: As someone who loves blind dates with a book and mystery bags, what exciting books are currently hiding in your own TBR pile?

DeAnna: "Oh man… So many! Valicity Elaine’s Withered Rose series, JB Juke’s Wen Rising, there’s honestly so many! I just went to Indy Lit Con ‘26 and found so many Indie authors and their books that I’m wanting to dig into!"

Want Deeper Access? 💎

This is just a small preview of our wonderful conversation with DeAnna Kaye Fields! Premium members of The First Editions can log in now to unlock the complete, unedited Q&A.

Inside the Premium Tier, DeAnna dishes on:

• A deeper look into the inspiration behind Cody's psychological journey.

• Why second-chance romances resonate so deeply with her.

• Her absolute favorite writing routines, snacks, and release-day traditions.

• Her dream day hanging out with one of her own characters in real life.

Connect with DeAnna Kaye Fields

Don't miss out on DeAnna's heartwarming stories! Be sure to grab your copies and follow her journey online:

• Official Website: dkfwrites.com

• Follow on Socials: @dkfwrites (Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, & Threads)

• Goodreads: DeAnna Kaye Fields Author Page

• Shop Golden Hour: Amazon Link

• Pre-Order Grass Is Greener (eBook): Amazon Link

This is the full-access edition of our Q&A for The First Editions paid members. Thank you for supporting our community! 💎

So I noticed that Rachel Harrison was asking about podcast interviews on her IG and was like "might as well shoot my shot" and see if I could get a short interview with her. And she responded! So please read below for a quick little interview in promotion of her upcoming September release Kiss Slay Replay.

· Without spoiling too much for future readers, what inspired you to write a time loop novel? Time loops actually really stress me out! I have bad anxiety, and the idea of being stuck causes me to panic. I wanted to confront that fear in a novel, working through it on the page in a way that was fun and cathartic.

· When it came to the time loop, how did you come up
with the ideas to make each loop distinct enough for Willa and the reader? Without giving too much away, it was a certainly a challenge to find the balance of having those classic nods to a time loop, repeating some dialogue, anticipating things happening, but in all my novels, it’s always more about the human thing than the supernatural thing. By focusing on Willa and her emotional journey, it (hopefully) helped me avoid getting too repetitive.

· You seem to have found a niche as a horror writer
who injects a lot of heart and humor into your books. What tips do you have for
writers who are looking to write horror with a bit of heart? It raises the stakes if your readers care about your characters. I don’t think it’s necessary to shy away from humor or heart just because of the horror label, I think those things enhance the horror. Write from the heart, be vulnerable on the page, and you’ll connect with readers on a whole other level. Terror and heart are not mutually exclusive.

· Who are your biggest inspirations when it comes to
writing, whether they be fellow horror writers, or directors, or authors of any
genre? Paul Tremblay is a big one, I really admire Paul. He stays true to himself in a way that’s really punk rock. He does something different every time, he doesn’t rest on his laurels, and I try to do the same.

· If you could sum up Kiss Slay Replay with one song, what song would that be and why? It’s too hard to pick just one! Help I’m Alive by Metric (which is the epigraph), Fleeting by Sarah Kinsley, Love Love Kiss Kiss by Alkaline Trio, and of course, Tubthumping by Chumbawamba. Lyrically, and vibes-wise, they're all perfect fits. 

Many thanks to Rachel for taking the time to answer my questions! Please consider ordering her upcoming book Kiss Slay Replay from our bookshop, Two Stories Bookshop, on Bookshop.org or on Libro.fm!

Till next time!