1–What is the title of your latest release? THE FRIDAY NIGHT CLUB 2–What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book? The Friday Night Club is an illuminating historical novel that explores destiny, passion, and the threads that connect the visionary Swedish artist, Hilma af Klint and four creative women as they challenge the artistic and societal traditions of their time. 3–How did you decide where your book was going to take place? As The Friday Night Club is a historical novel, the book had to take place in Stockholm, Sweden where the five women women’s lives unfolded. There is also a modern-day storyline that takes place in New York and that was also necessary as it parallels the exhibition of Hilma af Klint’s paintings that were exhibited at the Guggenheim Museum in 2019. 4–Would you hang out with your protagonist in real life? Yes. 5–What are three words that describe your protagonist? Artist, Visionary and Mystic. 6–What’s something you learned while writing this book? That the path to being an artist has always been difficult, but for a female artist, the challenges are even greater. 7–Do you edit as you draft or wait until you are totally done? I always edit as…

Instead of trying to find your perfect match in a dating app, we bring you the “Author-Reader Match” where we introduce you to authors you may fall in love with. It’s our great pleasure to present Lauren Willig!   Writes: Hi!  I write historical fiction about the strong heroines who have been written out of the history books.  I started my career writing about female spies in the Napoleonic Wars (The Secret History of the Pink Carnation!), and then moved on to all sorts of other interesting corners of history, most recently the 1890s (yep, the Gilded Age—but there was so much more than just gilt!). My latest book, based on a true story, follows an 1896 Smith College graduate as she goes to Greece to train as an archaeologist, only to be told that women can’t excavate.  In a fit of pique, she takes a Red Cross nursing class and finds herself swept up in first the Greco-Turkish War of 1897 and then the Spanish-American War of 1898, learning her true strength in the battlefields of Cuba with Teddy Roosevelt’s Rough Riders.  The book is called TWO WARS AND A WEDDING—and I promise, there are actually two wars AND…

1–What is the title of your latest release? THE SOUND OF LIGHT 2–What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book? In WWII Denmark, Baron Henrik Ahlefeldt assumes the identity of a common shipyard worker, rowing messages to Sweden for the Resistance. His life depends on keeping his secret hidden–a task that proves challenging when he meets Else Jensen, an American physicist who seems to see right through him. 3–How did you decide where your book was going to take place? I’ve been fascinated with the story of Denmark in World War II for years now, and I couldn’t wait to tell a tale set there. For a tiny nation, it produced some huge history. 4–Would you hang out with your protagonist in real life? I’d love to hang out with Else. She may be a nuclear physicist, but she has a way of explaining things for “normal” people, and she has a fresh way of looking at things. She’s also enthusiastic and passionate and gentle-spirited. 5–What are three words that describe your protagonist? Intuitive, kind, determined. 6–What’s something you learned while writing this book? So many things! On a big-picture level, for the first few years of the occupation, the…

1–What is the title of your latest release? THE WOMAN WITH THE CURE 2–What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book? Polio haunted the world for thirty-nine summers, preying on babies, children, and young adults. The heroic men in the race to find the vaccine have gone down in history. But finding polio vaccines actually hinged on the work of equally heroic, perhaps more determined, women. This book is about them. 3–How did you decide where your book was going to take place? History decided that for me. Once I chose Dorothy Horstmann as my protagonist, I just followed her around. Fortunately, she went to places I’ve visited and love, San Francisco, New York City, Warm Springs, Georgia, and Copenhagen and Odense, Denmark, to name a few. 4–Would you hang out with your protagonist in real life? YES! I love her! 5–What are three words that describe your protagonist? Warm, curious, determined. 6–What’s something you learned while writing this book? I learned how connected we all are. Everyone got into the fight to beat polio: parents of polio patients, the patients themselves, the nurses and physical therapists who figured out ways to rehabilitate paralyzed limbs, moms who went door-to-door to…

Jews and Gypsies are no longer considered German Reich citi­zens and do not have the right to vote in either Reichstag elec­tions or the Anschluss. Johannes I checked my watch as I ate the last of the dinner Hannah had prepared. “Is it alright?” she asked. I suddenly realized that I’d been gulping it down without re­ally concentrating on what I was eating. I paid more attention, savoring the current mouthful: lamb goulash with sweet pa­prika and potatoes. “Very nice—as it always is.” Hannah was a good cook, but her repertoire extended to no more than eight or nine dishes, which she’d regularly rotate. “Good, Momma,” our youngest, Elena, just four years old, agreed with a big smile. Hannah had spent a few minutes dic­ing her lamb into smaller pieces as we’d sat down while Elena protested, “I’m not a baby anymore—you don’t need to.” Our eldest, Stefan, now nine, simply smiled and nodded, not wanting anything to interrupt his racehorse eating—though his was more through enjoyment than eagerness to be some­where else. My mind was already half on the plans I’d discussed earlier with Mathias. It was decided that one of us should check out the “amnesty” that this…

1–What is the title of your latest release? THE REBEL, Emerson Pass, Book 8 2–What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book? The Rebel is the eighth and final installment in the bestselling Emerson Pass Series. American historical romance meets family saga in a series that spans thirty years. The Rebel is the youngest sister’s story and is set during WWII. 3–How did you decide where your book was going to take place? This series is set in a fictional mountain town in Colorado. The first book of the series is set in 1910 and I wanted a frontier setting for my family. 4–Would you hang out with your protagonist in real life? Absolutely. I’d love to hang out with any of the Barnes sisters. There are five of them and they each have unique characteristics that would make them fun to spend time with. 5–What are three words that describe your protagonist? Feisty. Resilient. Loyal. 6–What’s something you learned while writing this book? I learned a lot about campaign in Pacific Rim during WWII. I was more familiar with the fighting on Western Front, as there’s so much written about it, especially in fiction. 7–Do you edit as you…

Hi! I’m Chitra Divakaruni, author of INDEPENDENCE. I’m very pleased to be sharing a little about this novel with you. The book is at once a historical novel and a love story. It depicts India’s epic struggle for freedom from the British yoke, and the turmoil that follows Partition, as experienced by three sisters. Set in 1946-48, it is the story of three sisters who want very different things in life but find that all their plans are turned upside-down in the wake of a huge tragedy. As the novel proceeds, the three women will fall in love with the wrong men, get caught up in events beyond their control, and be separated from each other even as the country is being torn apart by violent religion-based feuds between Hindus and Muslims. They must do their best to come back together, face the dangers that confront them, and try to save each other.   I is for India, the setting of my novel, a country that after a great struggle is now on the verge of freedom in 1946, when the book begins. N is for Nabakumar, who is the idealistic father of the three sisters, a doctor who was a…

1–What is the title of your latest release? THE THREE LIVES OF ALIX ST PIERRE 2–What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book? Alix moves to Paris to take up a role as Director of Publicity for the not-yet-launched House of Christian Dior. Her job is to convince the press to come to the first showing from this new and unheard-of designer – and to outrun a man who’s trying to find out what she did during the war, which is something she’s not allowed to speak of. 3–How did you decide where your book was going to take place? It was easy – to write about the Director of Publicity at the House of Christian Dior, you have to set your book in Paris! 4–Would you hang out with your protagonist in real life? Definitely! We would go to the Ritz and eat chocolate tart and drink French 75s, two of Alix’s favorite things. 5–What are three words that describe your protagonist? Independent, smart and a little vulnerable. 6–What’s something you learned while writing this book? That most of the senior management team at the House of Christian Dior in 1947 were women – women who have been forgotten…

Instead of trying to find your perfect match in a dating app, we bring you the “Author-Reader Match” where we introduce you to authors you may fall in love with. It’s our great pleasure to present Laura Frantz!   Writes: Laura Frantz writes award-winning historical romances with emotional intensity and unexpected twists like her 14th novel, The Rose and the Thistle. Amid the Jacobite uprising of 1715, an English heiress flees to the Scottish Lowlands to stay with allies of her powerful family. But while castle walls may protect her from the enemy outside, a whirlwind of intrigue, shifting allegiances, and temptations of the heart lie within.   About: Young-at-heart Kentucky native seeking readers who love historical romance novels with emotional intensity and authentic detail & who are capable of soulful character connections. Happy endings guaranteed though it may be a rocky road to get there. Must have a passion for Scotland if not Scottish ancestry & the capacity to be charmed by an assortment of endearing characters & picturesque castles, including the ability to scream PLOT TWIST at least 20 times during the novel’s 400-plus pages.   What I’m looking for in my ideal reader match: Admires clever, titled…

1–What is the title of your latest release? THE GIRL WHO COUNTED NUMBERS 2–What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book? THE GIRL WHO COUNTED NUMBERS is the story of an independent, Jewish-American girl who despite her protestations gives in to her father and leaves for Israel to solve a family mystery. The hunt for any evidence of her uncle takes her to unexpected places where she must confront parts of the past she never knew. With the infamous Adolf Eichmann trial happening in the backdrop, Susan picks up clues everywhere, unraveling complex layers of history, and is drawn into the tense political climate of a post-Holocaust Israel. As she gets more and more involved in the struggles of her Israeli and Jewish-Moroccan friends, she explores awakening emotions and discovers her own interest in truth, justice, and activism. 3–How did you decide where your book was going to take place? I spent seven months living in Jerusalem in 1961, the year of the Eichmann trial. I was on a fellowship from Brandeis University studying politics, economics, and Hebrew. Mostly I listened to people’s conversations and absorbed the atmosphere.  I did not have a novel in mind then but 61 years…