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Author News & Interviews

Interview: Sarah Vaughan, author of The Art of Baking Blind

May 8, 2015

After 11 years working at the Guardian as a news reporter, health correspondent and political correspondent, Sarah Vaughan started freelancing and working on her first novel. THE ART OF BAKING BLIND is a delicious and heartfelt debut, in which five amateur bakers compete in a baking competition only to discover that the recipe for happiness may not be so easy to follow. In this interview with The Book Report Network's Norah Piehl, Vaughan reveals why she chose to set her novel at a cooking competition and some suggested further reading for inspired amateur bakers. She also admits that cooking for her is “a way of creating order out of chaos” and that food in families is never simply about nutrition. 

Interview: Holly Brown, author of Don't Try To Find Me

Apr 8, 2015

Holly Brown is a practicing marriage and family therapist, in addition to being a recent debut author. Her first book, DON’T TRY TO FIND ME (now available in paperback), is a gripping psychological thriller about one family's search for their missing daughter and the very public campaign that will expose their darkest secrets. In this interview with The Book Report Network’s Alexis Burling, Brown discusses her decision to place the mother-daughter relationship at the center of her story (a move that is somewhat atypical for the genre) and how her writing is informed by her work as a therapist. She also talks about runaways, reinvention, and why she believes nobody is ever truly beyond redemption.

Interview: Linda Goodnight, author of The Memory House: A Honey Ridge Novel

Apr 2, 2015

If Linda Goodnight had a theme song, it would start, "Well I was born in a small town..." Growing up in Prague, Oklahoma, she dabbled in poetry, made up stories in her head, and read every book she could get her hands on --- including GONE WITH THE WIND, which she credits with jumpstarting her own writing (or rewriting) career. THE MEMORY HOUSE is the first installment in her Honey Ridge series; set in the small town of Honey Ridge, Tennessee, it’s a tale of tender love and a house that’s rich with secrets and brimming with sweet possibilities. In this interview with The Book Report Network’s Bronwyn Miller, Goodnight opens up about the real-life tragedy that inspired her to write THE MEMORY HOUSE and how writing it helped her deal with her own recent loss. She also shares great advice for young authors, as well as generous insight into what she’s working on next.

Interview: Katherine Center, author of Happiness for Beginners

Mar 27, 2015

Katherine Center is the author of four novels about love and family, and her writing has appeared in multiple publications and anthologies. Her latest book, HAPPINESS FOR BEGINNERS, follows newly divorced Helen Carpenter as she embarks on a wilderness survival course and discovers that sometimes you have to leave things behind in order to find yourself. In this interview with The Book Report Network’s Alexis Burling, Center shares her own experience taking a wilderness survival course in her 20s and what it taught her about the way people grow. And it’s not only Center’s endings that are happy: She talks about why she’s more interested in resilience than defeat, and the lovely way she uses others’ wisdom to inspire her kids every day.

Interview: Sylvia True, author of The Wednesday Group

Mar 26, 2015

Sylvia True was born in Manchester, England to German refugees, who moved to the U.S. when she was five. She has been a high school science teacher for over 20 years, and now she (and readers!) welcomes her debut novel, THE WEDNESDAY GROUP. It’s the “unputdownable” story of five women, who meet each week in therapy to discuss the trials of being married to sex addicts. In this interview with The Book Report Network's Bronwyn Miller, True talks about why she felt compelled to write a story about addiction from a fresh --- and often overlooked --- angle, the reason she’s so interested in how people experience shame, and how writing about it helps her resolve those feelings in her own life.