Our guest this week is Rosey Lee (The Gardins of Edin, Waterbrook Press, January 2024). Rosey, whose alter ego is as a float physician and health equity advocate, first began with flash fiction, which eventually helped her complete a rough draft of her novel in only 6 weeks. We discuss finding an agent and publisher for crossover “Christian” fiction, her use of a mental health sensitivity reader, and how she augmented her publisher’s marketing plan with her own, including a self-funded book tour.

Rosey Lee writes stories about complicated families and complex friendships, but a happy ending is guaranteed. She is a nominee for a 2025 Georgia Author of the Year Award for The Gardins of Edin, her debut novel. A Gardin Wedding is her second novel. Rosey lives in Atlanta, about an hour away from the fictional town of Edin, Georgia, where her characters live. She grew up on the Westbank of New Orleans and carries the area and her loved ones in her heart when she’s away from them.

To learn more about Rosey, click here.

This week we talk with Lorraine Norwood (The Solitary Sparrow, Atmosphere Press, February 2024). Lorraine fell in love with the Middle Ages at a young age and carried that interest paired with her love of research into adulthood where, as a young mother, she started writing a book about a fictional peasant girl who aspired to be the first woman doctor in 14th century England, a novel which took her 30 years to write. We discuss finding the perfect agent but being unable to land a publisher, her decision to sign with a hybrid publisher and an inspiring story of how her interest in archaeology came full circle in her fifties, when she joined a dig in York and unearthed the shoe of a Viking and the bones of a dog buried centuries ago.

Lorraine is a North Carolina native who lives in the Blue Ridge mountains. The Solitary Sparrow is her first novel. She is working on the sequel, A Pelican in the Wilderness. She is a member of the Historical Novel Society and the Women’s Fiction Writers Association where she served as a judge in the Rising Star awards. She worked as a professional journalist for over 20 years, then took a turn at midlife, earning an anthropology degree and a master’s in medieval archaeology. She then worked in archaeology and historic preservation, participating in excavations in the US and England. She is the mother of two grown daughters and two granddaughters. She is happy that at long last, after two marriages, two children, fourteen jobs, three college degrees, and twenty-three moves (two of which were abroad), she has a room of her own in which to write.

To learn more about Lorraine, click here.

This week’s guest is Beth Uznis Johnson (Coming Clean, Regal House, January 2024). Beth turned her lifelong interest in what people’s belongings say about them into a novel centered on a cleaning lady at a crossroads and how one week with 5 different households helps her make life-altering decisions. We discuss the value of WFWA’s weekly virtual write-ins, how continuing education is a mantra for her, and how writing short stories at the same time she’s writing novels helps her not only flex her creative muscles but enhances her platform as a writer.

Beth Uznis Johnson has published fiction and creative nonfiction in Massachusetts Review, Cincinnati Review, Story Quarterly, Mississippi Review, Best American Essays 2018, and elsewhere. Her first novel, Coming Clean, was released by Regal House Publishing on January 9, 2024. She was the recipient of the 2017 McGinnis-Ritchie Award from Southwest Review and a finalist in the 2019 Mississippi Review fiction contest. She has an MFA in fiction from Queens University of Charlotte and lives in Chicago.

To learn more about Beth, click here.