Our guest this week is Nigar Alam (Under The Tamarind Tree, G.P.Putnam & Sons, August 2023). We discuss the ten years she spent educating herself about writing before finding her agent in an unusual way (it involved Twitter). Hear how her first conversation with her editor took place while Nigar was stranded in Turkey during a snowstorm, and how writing a book set in Pakistan had the serendipitous effect of bringing her closer to her parents. If your dream is to sign with a Big Five publishing house, listen as Nigar takes us behind the scenes to highlight the advantages that brings and why it’s not necessarily bad to write a book that straddles genres.

Born in Karachi, Pakistan, Nigar Alam spent her childhood in Turkey, Nigeria, Italy, Kenya, Indonesia, and the United States before returning to Karachi. With an MBA and CPA, she has worked in both brand management and auditing. Currently, Alam teaches at Anoka-Ramsey Community College and lives with her family in Minnesota.

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This week’s guest is Joanna Monahan (Something Better, Blue Ink Press, June 2023). Initially starting out to write a YA novel about a reunion, Joanna worked with a book coach and eventually decided to switch to a coming of (middle) age novel about second chances. She discovered her small press through networking channels including the weekly WFWA newsletter and social media contacts and was realistic with her marketing ideas, setting both modest goals (things she could control like her launch party) and stretch goals (dream aspirations like winning a national writing contest). We discuss thinking about what’s right for this particular book vs. your ongoing career and how she approaches writing as her own small business in terms of resource and time allocation.

Joanna Monahan lives in North Carolina with her husband, their two children, and one hangry cat. When she isn’t writing, Joanna enjoys theater, baseball, and bookmarking recipes she will never make. A child of the 80s, she regrets that she no longer receives pizza coupons in exchange for reading books.

Joanna is an active member of the Women's Fiction Writers Association and the North Carolina Writers' Network. Her debut novel, Something Better, was recently named a Next Generation Indie Book Awards winner in both the General Fiction and Chick Lit categories.

To learn more about Joanna, click here.