Amanda Sowards Interview – Episode 3.18

A.L. Sowards was born in Atlanta, Georgia and grew up in Moses Lake, Washington. As a child, she wrote self-illustrated storybooks at her grandparent’s house and attended her first writer’s conference when she was in third grade.

She was a previous guest on The Good Word, back in our first year of production, almost two years ago now. She was nominated for a Whitney Award with the book she was promoting at that time and is nominated again this year for her book, Deadly Alliance. Welcome back. AL. Sowards.

To purchase a copy of Deadly Alliance click here.


Kimberly Griffiths Little Interview – Episode 3.17

Kimberley Griffiths Little was born in San Francisco, but now lives in New Mexico with her husband and three sons in a solar adobe home on the banks of the Rio Grande. Her award-winning writing has been praised as “fast-paced and dramatic,” with “characters painted in memorable detail” and “beautifully realized settings.” Kimberley adores anything old and musty with a secret story to tell and makes way too many cookies while writing. She’s stayed in the haunted tower room at Borthwick Castle in Scotland; held baby gators in the bayous of Louisiana, sailed the Seine in Paris; ridden a camel in Petra, Jordan; shopped the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul; and spent the night in an old Communist hotel in Bulgaria. Kimberley’s Awards include: Southwest Book Award, Whitney Award for Best Youth Novel in 2010, Bank Street College Best Books of 2011 & 2014, Crystal Kite Finalist, and New Mexico Book Award Finalist. She has been nominated again as a Whitney Award Finalist for her book Forbidden, printed by Harper Collins. Welcome Kimberly Griffiths Little to The Good Word.

To purchase a copy of Forbidden, click here.


Carla Kelly Interview #2 – Episode 3.15

Award-winning author Carla Kelly is a veteran of the New York and international publishing world. Carla is best known for her Regency Romances, those novels of manner and wit, made popular more than two centuries ago by Jane Austen. Carla has made certain types of Regencies her own, particularly novels and stories about people who are not lords and ladies. Many of them are hard-working and hard-fighting members of the Royal Navy and Royal Marines in the Channel Fleet, and the British Army on the Spanish Peninsula.

For those that listened to our last interview, you will have learned that readers and reviewers enjoy Carla’s no-nonsense, no-frills writing, which she can trace directly to her high school training in journalism. Her stories are noted for historical accuracy and wry humor, featuring ordinary people who do extraordinary things, when called upon.

In her free time, Carla likes to flop on her $35 couch and read crime fiction, and what history interests her at the time. She is married to her husband, Martin, a retired professor of academic theatre. The Kellys have five children and grandchildren.

To purchase Carla Kelly’s Whitney Award winning book, Softly Falling, click here.


Chris Crowe Interview – Episode 3.9

Chris Crowe, a professor of English at Brigham Young University, has published award-winning fiction and nonfiction for teenagers, poetry, essays, books, and many articles for academic and popular magazines.  He married his high school sweetheart, Elizabeth, and they are the parents of four children and grandparents of two beautiful granddaughters.  They live in Provo, Utah.

He is the author of several books, most notably MISSISSIPPI TRIAL, 1955, which won several awards, including the 2003 International Reading Association’s Young Adult Novel Award. His nonfiction book, GETTING AWAY WITH MURDER: THE TRUE STORY OF THE EMMETT TILL CASE, was an Jane Addams Honor book. His first children’s book, JUST AS GOOD: HOW LARRY DOBY CHANGED AMERICA’S GAME, appeared in 2012. His newest book is a historical novel DEATH COMING UP THE HILL, released in October 2014. Death Coming Up The Hill is nominated as a Whitney Award Finalist for 2014.

To purchase a copy of Death Coming Up The Hill, click here.


Carla Kelly Interview – Episode 2.21

 

Carla Kelly is a veteran of the New York and international publishing world. The author of more than thirty novels and novellas for Donald I. Fine Co., Signet, and Harlequin, Carla is the recipient of two Rita Awards (think Oscars for romance writing) from Romance Writers of America and two Spur Awards (think Oscars for western fiction) from Western Writers of America. She is also a recipient of a Whitney Award for Borrowed Light and My Loving Vigil Keeping.

 


Brock Booher Interview – Episode 2.17

 

Brock Booher grew up on a farm in rural Kentucky, the fourth of ten children, where he learned to work hard, use his imagination, and believe in himself. He left the farm to pursue the friendly skies as a pilot, and currently flies for a major US carrier. A dedicated husband and father of six children, he began writing out of sheer arrogance, but the writing craft quickly humbled him. During that process, he discovered that he enjoyed writing because it is an endeavor that can never quite be mastered. He still gladly struggles everyday to improve his writing and storytelling skills. Brooke is the author of Healing Stone from Sweetwater Books.

 


Andrew Hall Interview – Episode 2.16

Andrew Hall was born in Whittier, California. He grew up in the Church and Served a mission in Kobe, Japan. Andrew attended school at BYU and the University of Pittsburgh where he received his PhD in Japanese History Andrew teaches courses in both Japanese and English.

Andrew and his wife have four children, all adopted, ages 15, 11, 11, and 6. Two boys we adopted as babies in the United States through LDS Family Services. The two girls were adopted in Japan, through the city of Fukuoka.

Andrew see’s Mormon literature is a hobby and is a participant in the Association for Mormon Letters group, where he reviews books, plays, and movies, and taking part in their online discussions. In 2000 Andrew started writing a “Mormon Literature Year in Review” article every year, going over the major literary works released that year, and reviewing the publishing news of the year. In 2012 Andrew received an AML “Special Award for Literary Journalism.”

 


L.T. Downing Interview – Episode 165

Lisa Torcasso Downing is an award-winning writer and advocate for the advancement of Mormon Letters, Her writing career began in the 1990’s with fiction storiesfor young people in the Friend and New Era magazines. She then branched out in what she affectionately calls “unauthorized” mormon journals and magazines. She has served as editor for Irreantum, the literary journal published by the Association for Mormon Letters, as well as Sunstone.

 

Downing currently resides in Texas, though she has called both California and Utah her home. She received a Bachelors degree in English from Brigham Young University and an Masters from Texas A&M-Commerce. She taught writing at Collin College and is a proud member of the the up-and-coming Rowlett Writer’s Workshop. She is an active, believing Latter-day Saint, a wife of nearly 30 years and the mother of three. L.T. Downing as she is known in her writing, is the author of Island of the Stone Boy and Get That Gold!, the first book in the Adventures of the Restoration series.

For more information on L.T. Downing or to buy her books, click here.


James Goldberg Interview – Episode 149

James Goldberg’s family is Jewish on one side, Sikh on the other, and Mormon in the middle. His plays, essays, and short stories have appeared in numerous publications, including Shofar, Drash, The Best of Mormonism: 2009, and Jattan Da Pracheen Ithas. He won the 2008 Association for Mormon Letters Drama Award for his play Prodigal Son and the 2012 AML Novel Award for The Five Books of Jesus. Goldberg teaches composition and creative writing courses at Brigham Young University.

Visit James Goldberg at the following blogs:

Mormon Midrashim

Caucajewmexdian

Purchase The Five Books of Jesus, click here.


Betsy Love Interview – Episode 138

Betsy Love has always had a passion for writing. Now hailing from the Mesa, Arizona area where she has lived with her husband and their eight children, Betsy teaches English and literature in High School.

When she is not writing, or teaching, or gardening you can find Betsy buried in a book. She is the author of the books Identity, Mystics Tale, and SoulFire-A Book of Mormon Novel.

To purchase Betsy Love’s new book, SoulFire, click here.