Kris Clink's Writing Table

Jeff quit a perfectly good job at the age of 47 to return to college for his MFA, and his first novel, Other People’s Children (Simon and Schuster, 2021), emerged from that silly decision. His second Novel, Like It Never Happened, will be released by Crooked Lane Books on March 5, 2024.

In addition to his two novels, Jeff’s writing has been published in The Sun, Booth, Harpur Palate, and Publishers Weekly. He was the winner of the Madison Review’s Chris O’Malley Prize in Fiction and a finalist for the Missouri Review’s Jeffrey E. Smith Editor’s Prize.

He is a passionate proponent of the Oxford comma, a mediocre men’s league hockey player, and a fair-weather fan of the Chicago Blackhawks. He was born and raised in St. Louis and now lives in Elmhurst, Illinois, with his wife and two children.

Learn more at: JeffHoffmannWrites.com

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Andie Burke began college as an English major before jumping into a pediatric nursing career. Her writing is inspired by over a decade spent working in hospitals with patients of all ages. After the last couple years spent in the pandemic ER, she escaped to an outpatient pediatric sedation unit.

Andie lives in a blue house in Maryland with an alarming number of books and an embarrassing number of ultra-fine point pens. When she’s not writing, she’s probably feeding snacks to the two small human creatures who live with her or trying not to kill her chaotic houseplants. You can find her on Bookstagram adding to her ever-expanding TBR or letting her ADHD brain happily dissociate while listening to Taylor Swift. She is the author of Fly With Me and Fall for Him. 

Learn more at andieburke.com

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Rebecca Hanover is the New York Times bestselling author of THE SIMILARS duology. After graduating from Stanford University with a BA in English and drama, Rebecca joined the writing team of the CBS daytime drama GUIDING LIGHT, where she earned an Emmy Award. Still, she never lost her love of books—particularly YA. She now writes Young Adult as well as adult novels full-time from her home in San Francisco, where she enjoys matcha lattes and a complete lack of seasons. When she isn’t writing, she can be found in a yoga class or reading anything Dav Pilkey with her husband and three kiddos.

Learn more at rebeccahanover.com

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Sheila Athens writes smart fiction set where the South meets the Sunshine state. Her stories are about women seeking to find the peace we all deserve—whether they’re battling an external foe or an internal one (or both). Readers are drawn to her work because they believe that everyday heroes can make a difference in our world.

After growing up in the Ozarks, she moved—sight unseen—to Northeast Florida with the man who would eventually become her husband. Thirty-five years later, she’s still on the shores of the Atlantic, grateful her two grown sons and their families live nearby.

She spent three decades in corporate America, most of it as a vice president of human resources. Though she did recruiting, training, and all the other disciplines of the field, she loved the employee relations aspect the most. It gave her a front row seat to the study of human nature, which is great fodder for a writer.

She’s a feminist, a lover of nature, a writer hiker, and an audiobook enthusiast. Her late husband did all the cooking at their house, so she’s having a fun time teaching herself how to cook.

Sheila now has two natural states: Talking books with readers and other writers OR staying firmly ensconced in her quiet little lair, where she reads, writes and communes with the ducks who live on the lake right off her back porch. Her latest novel is Neena Lee is Seeing Things.

Learn more at shielaathens.com

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Katherine Howe is a New York Times bestselling and award-winning historian and novelist. She is the author of several novels for adults and young adults, has edited two volumes of primary sources for Penguin Classics, and is the co-author with Anderson Cooper of the #1 New York Times bestselling books VANDERBILT and ASTOR.

Her newest novel, a mystery adventure set in the Golden Age of Piracy called A TRUE ACCOUNT: HANNAH MASURY'S SOJOURN AMONGST THE PYRATES, WRITTEN BY HERSELF came out in the US and the UK on November 21, 2023.

Katherine has appeared on “Good Morning America,” “CBS This Morning,” NPR’s “Weekend Edition,” the BBC, the History Channel, Smithsonian TV, the Travel Channel, and she hosted “Salem: Unmasking the Devil” for National Geographic. Her fiction has been translated into over twenty languages. She holds a BA in art history and philosophy from Columbia and an MA in American and New England studies from Boston University. A native Houstonian and avid sailor, she lives in New England with her family, where she is at work on her next book. One time, as a child, she looked up into the eye of a hurricane. She also puts hot sauce on everything.

Learn more at katherinehowe.com

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Laurie Frankel is the New York Times bestselling, award-winning author of four (going on five) novels. Her writing has also appeared in The New York Times, The Guardian, Publisher’s Weekly, People Magazine, Lit Hub, The Sydney Morning Herald, and other publications. She is the recipient of the Washington State Book Award and the Endeavor Award. Her novels have been translated into more than twenty-five languages and been optioned for film and TV. A former college professor, she now writes full-time in Seattle, Washington where she lives with her family and makes good soup.

Learn more at lauriefrankel.net

Do you have a question for a Writing Table guest author? Email Kris at writingtablepodcast@gmail.com. 
Follow us on Twitter: @writingtablepc

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Sarahlyn Bruck writes contemporary, book club fiction and is the award-winning author of three novels: Light of the Fire (coming January 2024), Daytime Drama (2021), and Designer You (2018). When she’s not writing, Sarahlyn moonlights as a full-time writing and literature professor at a local community college. She’s also a co-host of the pop culture podcast, Pretty Much Pop. From Northern California, she now lives in Philadelphia with her family.

Learn more at sarahlynbruck.com and follow her on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter at @sarahlynbruck.

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Katrina Kittle remembers thinking of herself as a writer way back in grade school, although she never thought about writing for publication until she graduated from college. Former classmates to this day tease her about the interminable stories she was always writing about horses or bands of stray animals. She inherited this love of books and storytelling from her dad, who encouraged her to read great books long before the same titles were required in school. Her dad still greets her at the door whenever she visits with, “Did you bring me any books?” Her curiosity, imagination, and passion for adventure come from her mom, who taught her always to look at the world with the discovering eyes of a child.  Katrina has written several novels for adults—The Blessings of the Animals,The Kindness of Strangers,Two Truths and a Lie,and Traveling Light—and one for young adults, Reasons to be Happy. 

Her characters are people we know, people we are, people we’ve been. They find themselves in circumstances they never imagined they’d face, and we are compelled to follow them as they find their way home, heal what’s broken, and discover strength they didn’t know they had. Katrina’s new novel, Morning in This Broken World, was an Amazon First Reads pick for August. 

Learn more at Katrina.kittle.com 

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PEG TYRE, the bestselling author of The Trouble with Boys, was, until recently, a senior writer at Newsweek specializing in social trends and education. She has won numerous awards, including a Pulitzer Prize, a Clarion Award, and a National Education Writers Association Award. She lives in New York City with her husband, novelist Peter Blauner, and their two sons. 

Her acclaimed novel, Strangers in the Night, was recently rereleased twenty-seven years after its original publication. 

Learn more at pegtyre.com 

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Erin Hoover was born in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. She is the author of two poetry collections: Barnburner (Elixir, 2018), which won the Antivenom Poetry Award and a Florida Book Award, and No Spare People (Black Lawrence, 2023). Her poems have appeared in The Best American Poetry and in journals such as Cincinnati Review, Poetry Northwest, Shenandoah, and The Sun. Hoover lives in Tennessee and teaches creative writing at Tennessee Tech University. She curates and hosts a poetry reading series, Sawmill Poetry, and produces the “Not Abandon, but Abide” monthly interview series for the Southern Review of Books.  Her most recent collection of poems can be found within her latest release, NO SPARE PEOPLE.

Learn more at erinhooverpoet.com 

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Gareth Russell is a historian and broadcaster, educated at Oxford University and Queen’s University, Belfast. He is the author of nine books. He is host of the podcast Single Malt History with Gareth Russell.  Russell divides his time between London and Belfast, Northern Ireland. 

In THE PALACE, Russell presents 500 years of the British monarchy, from King Henry VIII to Queen Elizabeth II, through a unique lens--their connections to specific rooms at Hampton Court Palace. Architecturally breathtaking and rich in splendid art and décor, Hampton Court Palace has been the stage of some of the most important events in British history, such as the commissioning of King James’s translation of the Bible, the staging of many of Shakespeare’s plays, and Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation ball.

Learn more at: https://www.simonandschuster.com/authors/Gareth-Russell/500660891

Follow Gareth at Instagram: @_garethrussell; Twitter: @garethrussell1.

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Molly Harper is the author of more than thirty paranormal and contemporary romance titles, including the Half-Moon Hollow series, the Southern Eclectic series, and the Audible exclusive Mystic Bayou series. Molly lives in Michigan with her family.

Molly's latest novel is Witches Get Stuff Done, an Audible Original. 

Learn more at mollyharper.com

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Jacquelyn Mitchard is the New York Times bestselling author of 23 novels for adults and teenagers, and the recipient of Great Britain’s Talkabout prize, The Bram Stoker and Shirley Jackson awards, and named to the short list for the Women’s Prize for Fiction. Her first novel, The Deep End of the Ocean, was the inaugural selection of the Oprah Winfrey Book Club, with more than 3 million copies in print in 34 languages. It was later adapted into a major feature film starring Michelle Pfeiffer. Her novel Still Summer has also been adapted for a film still in production and her teen trilogy The Midnight Twins, is in development for a limited series by Kaleidoscope Entertainment. Her essay collection, The Rest of Us: Dispatches from the Mother Ship, was drawn from her newspaper column syndicated by Tribune Media. Mitchard’s essays also have been published in magazines worldwide, widely anthologized, and incorporated into school curricula. She served on the Fiction jury for the 2003 National Book Awards and was editor-in-chief of Merit Press, a Young Adult imprint under the aegis of Simon and Schuster.

A Chicago native, Mitchard grew up the daughter of a plumber and a hardware store clerk who met as rodeo riders. She is a Distinguished Fellow at the Ragdale Foundation and a DeWitt Clinton Readers Digest Fellow at the MacDowell Colony. She has taught in MFA program for Creative Writing at Vermont College of Fine Arts, Miami University of Ohio and Western New England University and was a speechwriter for former U.S. Rep. and Secretary of Health and Human Services Donna E. Shalala. An avid Italian cook, she lives on Cape Cod with her husband and their nine children. Her newest novel, A Very Inconvenient Scandal, the story of Frankie Attleboro, an acclaimed young underwater photographer reeling from her mother’s shocking death, whose famous marine biologist father shatters the family by marrying Frankie’s best friend, is out from Mira/HarperCollins.

Learn more at jacquelynmitchard.com

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Rochelle B. Weinstein is the USA Today and Amazon bestselling author of When We Let Go, This Is Not How It Ends, Somebody’s Daughter, Where We Fall, The Mourning After, and What We Leave Behind. Rochelle spent her early years, always with a book in hand, raised by the likes of Sidney Sheldon and Judy Blume. A former entertainment industry executive, she splits her time between sunny South Florida and the mountains of North Carolina. When she’s not writing, Rochelle can be found on Miami's NBC 6 in the Mix sharing book recommendations, teaching workshops at Nova Southeastern University, hiking, reading, and finding the world’s best nachos. Her latest novel is What You Do to Me. 

Learn more at Rochelleweinstein.com 

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Vanessa Riley is the award-winning author of Island Queen, a Good Morning America Buzz Pick. Riley's historical novels showcase the hidden histories of Black women and women of color, emphasizing strong sisterhoods and dazzling multicultural communities. Her works encompass historical fiction, historical romance, and historical mystery and have been reviewed by the Washington Post, Entertainment Weekly, NPR, Publishers Weekly, and the New York Times. This Southern, Irish, Trini girl holds a doctorate in mechanical engineering and an MS in industrial engineering and engineering management from Stanford University. Riley also earned a BS and MS in mechanical engineering from Penn State University. Her research skills have helped NASA, GM, Hewlett Packard, and several startups. Yet, her love of history (Caribbean, Georgian, and Regency) and lattes overwhelmed her passion for math and has led to the publication of over twenty titles. Vanessa is a member and former president of Regency Fiction Writers, a member of Georgia Writers Association, the Historical Novel Society, Crime Writers of Color, and on the Board of Directors of Christian Book Lovers Retreat. She's an avid baker who loves creating her Trinidadian grandma's cake recipes. You can find Vanessa writing on her southern porch with proper amounts of caffeine. Her latest novel, the second in the Lady Worthing Mystery Series, is Murder on Drury Lane. 

To learn more please visit www.vanessariley.com  

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Carolyn Hays is an award-winning, critically acclaimed, bestselling author who has chosen to publish Letter to My Transgender Daughter under a pen name to protect the privacy of her family. Her novels have been published by Hachette, Simon and Schuster, and HarperCollins; her books are also widely translated. Letter to My Transgender Daughter has four overseas editions, including those by Picador UK and Flammarion in France. Her past books have been listed as New York Times Notable Books of the Year and Kirkus’s Best Fiction of the Year, and she's written for National Public Radio and The Washington Post.

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Emily Bleeker is the best-selling author of six novels. Combined, her books have reached over 1.5 million readers. She is a two-time Whitney Award finalist, a Wall Street Journal bestseller, Amazon charts bestseller and was recently listed as one of the top 100 Kindle authors “of all time.” Emily lives in the northern suburbs of Chicago with her four kids and a growing menagerie of animals. Between writing and being a mom, she attempts to learn guitar, sings along to the radio (loudly), performs with a local improv troupe, and embraces her newfound addiction to running. Her latest novel is When We Were Enemies. 

Learn more at: EmilyBleeker.com
Facebook: /emilybleekerauthor
Twitter: @Emily_Bleeker
Instagram: @emilybleekerauthor

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Yasmin Angoe is the author of Her Name Is Knight and a first-generation
Ghanaian American currently residing in South Carolina with her family.
She’s served in education for nearly twenty years and works as a
developmental editor. Yasmin received the 2020 Eleanor Taylor Bland
Crime Fiction Writers of Color Award from Sisters in Crime and is a
member of numerous crime, mystery, and thriller organizations like
Sisters in Crime, Crime Writers of Color, and International Thriller
Writers. 

Follow Yasmin at www.yasminangoe.com
Twitter: @yasawriter
Instagram: @author_yas.

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Alison Greenberg is an author and screenwriter who lives in Atlanta, but is quick to say she was born in New York City. While attending The University of Southern California, Alison took her first screenwriting class and fell head over heels. A journey from screenwriting led to marketing jobs, before coming full-circle back to her first love. Alison speaks fluent rom-com, lives for 90’s WB dramas, cries to Taylor Swift, and is a proud single mom to her two incredible kids, two cats, and one poorly-trained dog. 

Learn more at: AlisonRoseGreenberg.com

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David R. Slayton grew up in Guthrie, Oklahoma, where finding fantasy novels was pretty challenging and finding fantasy novels with diverse characters was downright impossible. Now he lives in Denver, Colorado and writes the books he always wanted to read. White Trash Warlock, David’s first novel, was a finalist for the Colorado Book Award. In 2015, David founded Trick or Read, an annual initiative to give out books along with candy to children on Halloween as well as uplift lesser-known authors or those from marginalized backgrounds. His latest, Dark Moon, Shallow Sea is the perfect dark fantasy read for Halloween. 

Find him online at DavidRSlayton.com 

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