Today I've taken a slight detour with Book Talk by inviting my friend Jill Williamson to join us. She writes amazing fantasy and creates worlds that readers adore. If y'all know me, you know that's not usually the book I'll grab first, but Jill is a friend who does it so well! While Jill and I had a great time talking about her brand-new novel, Squire of Truth, we also loved talking about writing. Her Medieval fantasy started with a dream and she's never looked back. She has too many ideas and doesn't love first drafts, but loves it when the story is working. I know you'll love learning more about Jill and her books.

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Want to watch this interview? You can see this episode as well as multiple others on YouTube! Enjoy!

I always love celebrating an author's debut novel with them and chatting with Janya Breigh about her first novel The Hunted Heir was a delight!

Jayna worked for ten years to see her dream come true, but she has loved words since her mother first started reading books like Pat the Bunny and Go Dog Go to her. Because she is an attorney who practiced in the LA area in Trusts and Estates litigation, it was natural for her to add those elements to her book when she turned to romantic suspense with a legal twist. We talked about her favorite authors as well as what she would tell herself if she could go back and give advice to Jayna who started the writing journey.

I think you'll enjoy meeting Jayna and learning more about her books.

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Want to watch this interview? You can see this episode as well as multiple others on YouTube! Enjoy!

If you enjoyed this conversation, I would be thrilled if you left a rating and review on your favorite podcast app and leave me a note below letting me know who you would love to see on the show!

Who doesn't love a good Christmas story? And who doesn't love celebrating someone's first novel? In this episode of Book Talk with Cara, we get to do both. Ann Swindell is my guest and we're talking about her brand-new novel Christmas in the Castle Library. This novel allowed Ann to explore novel writing after years of study and working with non-fiction including a devotional and spiritual memoir. As a student of writing, Ann considered what her favorite elements were and incorporated them into the novel: a historical mystery set inside a contemporary novel with royals in a created country. She wanted the story to be real enough to be believable yet whimsical enough to be fun. The result is this novel.

Ann doesn't know when she wasn't a writer because she always had journals as a child. Writing for her is an opportunity to commune with God and feel alive in the gifts she's been given. It's hard work, but she loves the editorial and collaborative process. I know you're going to enjoy this novel that welcomes you into Christmas.

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It's almost Christmas, and that means it's time to read Christmas books. Today I've got three delightful authors on Book Talk to talk about their novella collection A Louisiana Christmas to Remember. In these three, interconnected Christmas novellas, you experience three wonderful stories of love and hope. In A Louisiana Snow by Morgan Tarpley Smith, meet Mattie: A passionate visionary who learns to forgive and finds love in unexpected places… In Restoring Christmas by Betsy St. Amant, meet Jolene: An artist and prodigal daughter who discovers love exists in the very place she once called home… In A Christmas Reunion by Lenora Worth, meet Adale: A beautiful widow who finally dares to love again…

What I love about this Book Talk is we have three authors at different stages of their careers. Lenora Worth has written over 100 novels, Betsy St. Amant has written over 25, and this is Morgan Tarpley Smith's debut. They are at such different places but all love writing and story. Each of them showed signs of being a storyteller at a young age and fell in love with words as children. And that love of words and story carries them forward in writing today. They all have great advice for writers today as well. I really think you'll love meeting these three and learning more about A Louisiana Christmas to Remember.

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Today it is such a pleasure introducing you to my friend and author Tessa Afshar. She is the author of 12 award-winning, best-selling novels, but it has been a journey for her to get here. She first started writing in her twenties, but after two rejections stopped. Then years later felt called to finish one of her novels after years of starting many, but not getting past the first 20 or 30 pages. That first book that she finished was on Rahab, because Tessa found it fascinating that Rahab was a woman who literally lived in a wall. She found that God made the calling in the shape of her — she'd been prepared all along to write what she never thought she would — Biblical fiction.

In The Queen's Cook, Tessa has taken a twist on the story of Queen Esther, placing her as the mentor character. This series focuses on three women, each of whom has contact with Queen Esther and becomes friends with her in different ways. The book and series are embedded in the Persian Empire and the courts but without the focus being solely on the Queen.

You're going to enjoy this interview and learning more about Tessa and how she writes and researches her novels. There's so much that goes into them.

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Writing can be an intense process, and today I'm talking to a woman who has written 18 full-length novels since 2013 in addition to many shorter-length romantic suspense books. Patricia Bradley is wonderful at creating stories that pull you deeply into character-driven stories that are filled with questions because she starts with a question. What if?... As a plantser, she often feels like she's driving in a fog. She can only see so far down the road of the book and can only plot so far. Writing allows her to create something of a world she can control, but ultimately, she has to remain true to the characters and how they will overcome the challenges that are placed in front of them.

In her latest book, Deadly Revenge, Patricia has created a world filled with challenges that just might kill her characters. It's a twisty world out there, but one worth exploring.

You'll find Patricia writing something every day... even a grocery list... as she works to fill her books with characters who have motive, means, and opportunity. A lot can change as the story unfolds. This year you'll find her celebrating turning in her next book by taking the time to celebrate Thanksgiving and Christmas for the first time in years with family. I think it's about time!

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In this episode of Book Talk, I have the pleasure of introducing you to my friend Robin Jones Gunn. Robin is such a light — I adore spending time with her even if it's constrained to Zoom. Today we're talking about her brand new novel Tea with Elephants. We've both had the privilege of traveling to Kenya and going on safaris (mine much shorter than hers). Tea with Elephants is a story of friendships and the value we gain when we give each other the gift of ourselves. This story is a beautiful exploration of what happens when we strip down life that has gone too fast and take the next step of showing up.

I really love Robin's writing and her heart, but her writing rhythm might kill me. For years she got up to write from 3 to 7 a.m. She did this for 15 years y'all! that is one committed writer. Her advice to new writers applies to all of us regardless of where we are in life. Trust God and stop worrying.

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Y'all, I have been a huge fan of Irene Hannon's romantic suspense for years. I have so many of them on my bookshelf and can't get rid of them. It is a delight to host her on Book Talk today to talk about her latest book, Over the Edge. She first started writing at ten — and is now approaching 70 books published. That's pretty prolific! We share a love for Nancy Drew that propelled both of us into writing romantic suspense, but she started with contemporary romance. So if you love either genre, she releases a book a year you'll enjoy.

Irene gets her ideas not from a folder of ideas she curates, but from browsing the internet, looking through the paper, listening to conversations, and building a spiderweb from the ideas that spark her interest. She looks for that seed or thread that she can pull on and build from. Her favorite part of writing is the dialogue — she feels like a stenographer taking dictation. And the first sentence/scene is what she slaves over. Getting that and the characterization right sets the scene for everything else. I can't wait for you to get to know Irene Hannon in this conversation.

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