Today it's a delight to have my friend Crystal Caudill back on Book Talk. The last time I saw her was at the Christy Award Ceremony in November when we were both finalists in the Short Form category for our novellas in We Three Kings, the collection we wrote along with Angela Strong for Kregel. It was such fun celebrating with her when she won! Today we are talking about her latest novel Written in Secret, a romantic mystery set in the Gilded Age. This novel is a hoot with plenty of fun moments and intrigue. The balance is really impeccable. I also think you'll enjoy our conversation about how this story grew out of a sentence in another book. It really is a madcap adventure in some ways. Enjoy the journey and the fun!

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Elizabeth Goddard and I have been writing friends for a long time, and her romantic suspense novels are some of my favorites. Storm Warning is one that races from the first page with the perfect blend of romance and intense suspense. What I didn't realize until we talked is that there are actual lodges like the one in this novel where people retreat to watch storms blow in. A perfect setting for a suspense novel!

When we talked about what a hero has to have, Elizabeth was quick to say he has to be strong, which is why her heroes tend to have a military or law enforcement background. I personally love the way Hawk is determined to look after Remi, even when she's not sure she can trust anyone. And Remi can take care of herself. It's a great combination of a hero and heroine in this novel.

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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!

Y'all, there are some people that I just love getting to introduce you to and Sarah Monzonis one of them. Her book An Overdue Matchis a fun romantic comedy with real depth to it. Those two things don't always go together, so when they do, I think it's a real treat. And sometimes a book is very personal to an author. An Overdue Match is that kind of book for Sarah Monzon. The heroine, Evangeline suffers from an autoimmune disease that someone close to Sarah does, and she wanted to give representation to that illness. This romantic comedy is filled with hope even as it deals with self-confidence and what it means to be so different from everyone else and wonder if you can still be feminine. Add in a hero who just wants to spend time with her and it's a fun story that is an ode to books. There's something special when two people who love books get in the same space. This conversation contains that spark and I think you'll really enjoy it.

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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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