Authors on the Air Global Radio Network

Todays featured story is from Robert Gwaltney. It's a special excerpt from his debut novel The Cicada Tree. Before the story, we talk about how powerful early childhood experiences can be, what advice his granny Louise gave him about where to sit, and what music influenced him while he was writing The Cicada Tree. After the story, hearing about his essential things will make you want to reach out and be friends! You can find him on Facebook, and I highly recommend you check out his website and blog. The Cicada Tree will be released in January 2022. Thanks for listening. https://robertlgwaltney.com/

Today's featured story is from Melissa Face and her collection of parenting essays called I Love You More Than Coffee. Her book celebrates early motherhood, but it's not just for new moms reaching for their coffee. It's also for moms looking back and remembering. Melissa is quick to smile and laugh, a joy to talk to. Listen to why she's glad she wrote these essays, how her daughter's confidence makes her say wow, and when she felt the cosmic shift of motherhood - that moment of no longer feeling like the center of her own universe. You can find her book and her schedule of coffee and library talks on her website. She also shared a great picture of her and her kids that we will put on the Desideratum Facebook page. Thanks for listening. https://melissaface.com/

The featured story this week is from Marylee Macdonald's collection of short stories Body Language: Twelve unforgettable portraits of heartbreak and desire. The story is brought to life by her talented audiobook narrator Adam Barr. Marylee's work in this collection is about the solace of touch and it's connection to well being. She also talks about place and how she uses it to put her characters in uncomfortable situations. Why she does this, turns out to be very personal for her. Her ideas about nature and nurture and love are rooted in her experiences with adoption. Listen for what she has to say about identity, motherhood and the physicality of creativity. You can find her novels, her short story collections and the ways she helps other authors with their writing, publishing and marketing on her website. maryleemacdonaldauthor.com You can find out more about narrator Adam Barr and connect to his extensive library of audiobooks on his website. https://www.adambarrnarration.com/

Our featured story comes from Alison Ragsdale, a proud Scot lass, who writes emotionally charged novels that often require tissues. I want you to listen to how her own personal resets - adapting to her life's unexpected events - shapes her characters and her storytelling. I love what she says about supporting characters grounding her stories and the gift her father gave her that shows up in her characters lives. She has lived a global life and walked a winding path... Alison's latest novel Her Last Chance launched this month. You can find it and all her novels on her website. http://www.alisonragsdale.com/ I'll post a picture of Alison in Scotland on the Desideratum Podcast website. https://desideratumpodcast.com/ Thanks for listening.

Our featured story Ignorance or Innocence is from Johnnie Bernhard. It will be included in an anthology of short stories about home, in September, 2021. Johnnie wrote this story awhile ago, before her successful novels. Unlike her novels, this story is autobiographical, set in a small Texas town where she moved in 8th grade. It's kind of a story about being an outsider, but Johnnie has this way of seeing the 'Gift' in things, even hard things like loneliness. You will hear why she starts every story with character and family and what part of writing she equates to a runner's high - it's fantastic. She's fantastic and she's clearly doing what she was meant to do. After you listen... you can listen to her TEDTalk here, https://www.ted.com/talks/johnnie_bernhard_the_human_story You can find links to purchase her novels and audiobook on her website. http://www.johnniebernhardauthor.com/ You can find her mentoring writers through Gemini Ink https://geminiink.org/ And, you can see a lovely picture she shared of her and her mom Loula Mae taken on Johnnie's wedding day. We will share it on the Desideratum website. Thanks for listening.

Our featured story comes from Steve Wiegenstein's twelve story collection Scattered Lights. Like Steve, the characters in these stories are deeply rooted in the Ozarks. Yet through his storytelling, he unearths something more universal than regional in each human motivation and interaction. In Unexplained Aerial Phenomena the character Janine says, "Every story fills a need." I hope after you listen, you feel the need to read all of Steve's stories from this collection and from his series of historical novels. You can find them on his website where you can also read 'whatever he feels like writing about' on his blog. Congratulations to Steve on Scattered Lights being named a Finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction 2021. Thanks for listening. https://www.stevewiegenstein.com/ , https://www.penfaulkner.org/2021/03/02/announcing-the-finalists-for-the-2021-pen-faulkner-award-for-fiction/

On the latest episode of Now, Appalachia, Eliot interviews author Blake Scott Ball about his latest book CHARLIE BROWN'S AMERICA: THE POPULAR POLITICS OF PEANUTS. Blake is Assistant Professor of History at Huntingdon College in Montgomery, Alabama and is a writer and historian of 20th century culture.

Former Apache pilot, FBI Special Agent, SWAT team member, and renowned bestseller Don Bentley steps into the Interrogation Room to try getting his story straight. Don Bentley flew Apache helicopters for the Army in South Korea, Germany, and Texas. While deployed to Afghanistan as a Troop Commander in support of Operation Enduring Freedom VI, Don earned the Bronze Star Medal and the Air Medal with “V” device for valor. Following his military service, Don worked as an FBI Special Agent and was a member of the Dallas Office Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) team. Since leaving the FBI, Don has worked for a number of companies that develop technology for the U.S. Special Operations Community. He holds a B.S. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the Ohio State University, and an M.F.A in Writing Popular Fiction from Seton Hill University. Don is the author of the Matt Drake thriller series including WITHOUT SANCTION, THE OUTSIDE MAN, and two forth coming titles, as well as TARGET ACQUIRED, a Tom Clancy Jack Ryan, Jr. novel. For this episode, Don and host Gavin Reese discuss crafting characters, writing in the Jack Ryan universe, and standing in the room with Special Forces operators. Don's site: https://donbentleybooks.com Don's works: https://donbentleybooks.com/books/ Gavin's site: https://gavinreese.com Gavin's works: https://books2read.com/ap/xMDDyO/Gavin-Reese

Iris Johansen—a #1 New York Times bestselling author—joins Pamela Fagan Hutchins on Wine Women & Writing to talk about her 27th Eve Duncan novel, THE BULLET, as well as rescue dogs, kids, and the inspiration for her characters and books. Johansen began writing after her children left home for college. She first achieved success in the early 1980s writing category romances. In 1991, Johansen began writing suspense historical romance novels, starting with the publication of The Wind Dancer. In 1996 Johansen switched genres, turning to crime fiction, with which she has had great success. She now has over 30 consecutive New York Times bestsellers. Johansen divides her time between Florida and Georgia. Her son (and frequent collaborator) Roy Johansen is an Edgar Award-winning screenwriter and novelist. Her daughter, Tamara, serves as her research assistant. For more information about Iris and her books, visit http://irisjohansen.com For more information about the show, Pamela, and her books, visit http://pamelafaganhutchins.com About the Bullet: Eve Duncan and Joe Quinn must protect the life of a brilliant scientist so that she can live long enough to bring her discovery to the world, in this fast-paced thriller from #1 New York Times bestselling author Iris Johansen. Diane Connors is a dedicated doctor with the world’s biggest secret, a discovery that could have shocking global ramifications. But while conducting private research trials, word has gotten out. The wrong people have heard the news and now want to hide Diane’s achievement for their own ends. With nowhere else to turn, Diane finds herself on the doorstep of the last man she wants to ask for help: her ex-husband, Joe Quinn. Joe has remarried, and he and his wife, Eve Duncan, seem blissfully happy in their quiet, rural life until they are faced with the challenge of risking it all—even their marriage itself—for the greater good … Now Eve is trapped in a web of murder and deceit as powerful enemies rush to cover up the truth, determined that Diane’s discovery goes with her to the grave—even if Eve and Joe get buried with her.

https://www.maycobb.com/ My upcoming thriller, THE HUNTING WIVES, will be released from Berkley/Penguin Random House in May 2021. My debut thriller, BIG WOODS, won multiple awards and was released summer 2018. I'm currently finishing a book about the late, jazz great, Rahsaan Roland Kirk, a project which has been in the works for twenty years. Kirk was a human phenomenon—a multi-instrumentalist who was best known for his miraculous ability to play three saxophones simultaneously. During his brief life, he defied staggering odds—from blindness, to prejudice, to a paralyzing stroke—in order to play the music that came to him through dreams. His story is what made me want to become a writer. I grew up in the piney woods of East Texas where both THE HUNTING WIVES and BIG WOODS are set. After college, I moved to San Francisco where I studied Victorian Literature for my Master's, and gravitated towards that era's detective novels, known as "sensation novels", such as Wilke Collins' THE WOMAN IN WHITE. I then lived in Los Angeles for a few years where I worked for filmmaker/writer Ron Shelton and his wife, the actress Lolita Davidovich I currently live in Austin, Texas, with my husband and son where we enjoy traipsing around the area’s many beautiful parks. I also enjoy napping, staring into space, making to-do lists for my to-do lists, shoveling cookies down my throat when I'm writing a particularly difficult scene (and even when I'm not), wearing my PJ’s as often as I can get away with and collapsing into bed at the end of a day with a great book. My writing has appeared in The Washington Post, The Rumpus, Austin Monthly, and Edible Austin. My proudest achievement remains clinching 1st place in the UIL competition for Personal Writing when I was in the 4th grade. VOX VOMITUS: Sometimes, it's not what goes right in the writing process, it's what goes horribly wrong. Host/Literary horror novelist Jennifer Anne Gordon with help from her co-host/author Allison Martine, chat with some of the best authors of the day. www.jenniferannegordon.com www.afictionalhubbard.com @Copyrighted by Authors on the Air