Today's author interview guest is Jess Montgomery, author of The Stills: A Novel (The Kinship Series Book 3). With compassion and insight, Jess Montgomery weaves a gripping mystery and portrait of community in The Stills, the powerful third novel in the Kinship series. Ohio, 1927: Moonshining is a way of life in rural Bronwyn County, and even the otherwise upstanding Sheriff Lily Ross has been known to turn a blind eye when it comes to stills in the area. But when thirteen-year-old Jebediah Ranklin almost dies after drinking tainted moonshine, Lily knows that someone has gone too far, and—with the help of organizer and moonshiner Marvena Whitcomb—is determined to find out who. But then, Lily’s nemesis, the businessman George Vogel, reappears in town with his new wife, Fiona. Along with them is also her former brother-in-law Luther Ross, now an agent for the newly formed Bureau of Prohibition. To Lily, it seems too much of a coincidence that they should arrive now. As fall turns to winter, a blizzard closes in. Lily starts to peel back the layers of deception shrouding the town of Kinship, but soon she discovers that many around her seem to be betraying those they hold dear—and that Fiona too may have an agenda of her own. JESS MONTGOMERY is the author of the Kinship Historical Mystery series, inspired by a true-life 1920s female sheriff in Appalachia. You can find out more about her books at www.jessmontgomeryauthor.com, or on Facebook @JessMontgomeryAuthor. Under Jess's given name, she is a columnist for Writer's Digest, "Level Up Your Writing (Life)," and for the Dayton Daily News, focusing on the literary life, authors and events of her native Dayton, Ohio. Her first novel in the Kinship Historical Mystery series, THE WIDOWS, won the Readers' Choice in Fiction for the 2019 Ohioana Awards. Jess is a three-time recipient of the Individual Excellence Award in Literary Arts from the Ohio Arts Council, and has been a John E. Nance Writer in Residence at Thurber House (Columbus, Ohio). She lives in her native Ohio, and in addition to writing, loves spending time with family and friends, reading, crocheting, baking (especially pies), spoiling her cats and houseplants, hiking and occasionally fishing. +++++++++++++ If you're looking to get to know me a bit better, come and sit a spell. Get comfortable. I'll take a moment while you do, and pretend we're sitting on my back porch in my glider, with tall glasses of sweet tea. Now, the first tidbit you'll need to know about me is that I come from a long line of story-tellers, mostly unofficial, though I had one great-uncle who became a well-published poet, with several collections, and a great-aunt who wrote a gossip column for the weekly newspaper in her small Appal ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xIJLdGOasYs

Today’s author interview guest is Jake Brown, author of Behind the Boards: Nashville: The Studio Stories Behind Country Music’s Greatest Hits! If you’re a County Music fan, you’ve seen glimpses perhaps of it on TV shows like Nashville and movies like Walk the Line, but never before have fans of music’s biggest-selling genre been invited inside the heart of the creative nerve centers where their favorite # 1 hits are brought to life, the recording studio! Inside the pages of BEHIND THE BOARDS: NASHVILLE, Country music fans for the first time ever are given a front-row seat inside Music Row’s most famous recording studios on tours narrated by the town’s BIGGEST record producers, including Songland star Shane McAnally, Dann Huff, James Stroud, Jim Ed Norman, Dave Cobb, Justin Neibank, Ross Copperman, Zach Crowell, Chris Destefano, Jesse Frasure, Norbert Putnam, Josh Osborne, Luke Laird, Clint Black, Frank Liddell, Jimmy Robbins, Josh Leo, Nathan Chapman, Paul Worley, Jeff Stevens, Jody Stevens, Bobby Braddock, Michael Knox, Don Cook, Frank Rogers, Joey Moi, Ray Baker, and Buddy Cannon, Ray Riddle, Jimmy Robbins, J. Gary Smith, Smo, and more. Collectively, the book features over 300 # 1 hits by Country’s biggest stars, including Taylor Swift, Luke Bryan, Lady Antebellum, Chris Stapleton, Carrie Underwood, George Strait, Jason Aldean, Miranda Lambert, Clint Black, Jimmy Buffett’s “Margaritaville”, Florida Georgia Line, Reba McEntire, Lionel Richie’s Tuskegee album, A Star is Born Soundtrack starring Lady Gaga/Bradley Cooper, Brad Paisley, Sam Hunt, Blake Shelton, Trisha Yearwood, Kacey Musgraves, Brooks & Dunn, Keith Urban, Alabama, Jason Isbell, George Jones, Jewel, Rascal Flatts, Tim McGraw, Toby Keith, Willie Nelson, Lori McKenna, Midland, Faith Hill, Steve Earle, Hank Williams Jr., Lyle Lovett, Thomas Rhett, Dierks Bentley, Vince Gill, Brett Eldredge, Martina McBride, The Dixie Chicks, The Band Perry, Shooter Jennings, Jake Owen, Big & Rich, Jon Pardi, the Nitty Gritty Band, Scotty McCreery, Darius Rucker, Mo Bandy, The Eagles, and the great Merle Haggard among others. Critical Praise: Country Music Television – “A new Jake Brown book, Behind the Boards: Nashville…goes deep.” Mix Magazine – “A skilled writer and music biographer, Brown brings the reader into the studio by seamlessly oscillating between narration and interview, weaving together the history and context surrounding these classic recordings with the voices of those who were there, behind the boards. Behind The Boards II is a fascinating collection of tales of the technical and human elements behind some of the greatest music of all time. Award-winning Music biographer Jake Brown has written 50 published books since 2001, featuring many ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NyMX37MMYIw

Today’s author interview guest is Emily Elgar, author of Grace Is Gone. From the bestselling author of If You Knew Her comes this harrowing tale of suspense—a story ripped from today’s headlines—of a tight-knit English community, who’s rocked by the murder of a mother and the mysterious disappearance of her daughter, and the secrets that lie concealed beneath a carefully constructed facade. A small town’s beloved family. A shocking, senseless crime—and the dark secret at the heart of it all. Everyone in Ashford, Cornwall, knows Meg Nichols and her daughter, Grace. Meg has been selflessly caring for Grace for years, and Grace—smiling and optimistic in spite of her many illnesses—adores her mother. So when Meg is found brutally bludgeoned in her bed and her daughter missing, the community is rocked. Meg had lived in terror of her abusive, unstable ex, convinced that he would return to try and kidnap Grace…as he had once before. Now it appears her fear was justified. Jon Katrin, a local journalist, knows he should avoid getting drawn back into this story. The article he wrote about Meg and Grace caused rifts within his marriage and the town. Perhaps if he can help find Grace, he can atone for previous lapses in judgment. The Nichols’ neighbor, Cara—contending with her own guilt over not being a better friend to Grace—becomes an unexpected ally. But in searching for Grace, Jon and Cara uncover anomalies that lead to more and more questions. Through multiple viewpoints and diary entries, the truth about Grace emerges, revealing a tragedy more twisted than anyone could have ever imagined… About Emily Elgar I live in Lewes, East Sussex with my endlessly patient husband and endlessly energetic young son. I started taking writing seriously when I was accepted onto the Faber Academy novel writing course in 2012. At the time, I was a support worker for male, female and transgender sex workers in London. I took the course because I love writing, not because I was necessarily seeking a change in career. It felt too audacious to transform myself into a novelist! After some knocks, I wrote – in a frenzy at 4am one morning – what is now the preface to my first novel If You Knew Her. From the off, it felt different to everything I’d written before. The words galloped out of me. I met my agent, the brilliant Nelle Andrew, soon after the course finished. Nelle sent an early draft of If You Knew Her to publishers and in October 2014 I signed a contract with the fantastic Lucy Malagoni at Little, Brown. What followed was an intense, but enjoyable, two years of completely reworking the book. The result is If You Knew Her which was published in the UK and the US in 2017 and translated into eight other langu ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SuH4boWzf6Q

Today’s author interview guest is Kerri Maher, author of The Girl in White Gloves: A Novel of Grace Kelly. A life in snapshots… Grace knows what people see. She’s the Cinderella story. An icon of glamor and elegance frozen in dazzling Technicolor. The picture of perfection. The girl in white gloves. A woman in living color… But behind the lens, beyond the panoramic views of glistening Mediterranean azure, she knows the truth. The sacrifices it takes for an unappreciated girl from Philadelphia to defy her family and become the reigning queen of the screen. The heartbreaking reasons she trades Hollywood for a crown. The loneliness of being a princess in a fairy tale kingdom that is all too real. Hardest of all for her adoring fans and loyal subjects to comprehend, is the harsh reality that to be the most envied woman in the world does not mean she is the happiest. Starved for affection and purpose, facing a labyrinth of romantic and social expectations with more twists and turns than Monaco’s infamous winding roads, Grace must find her own way to fulfillment. But what she risks–her art, her family, her marriage—she may never get back. KERRI MAHER is the author of The Kennedy Debutante, which People magazine described as “a riveting reimagining of a true tale of forbidden love,” and This Is Not a Writing Manual: Notes for the Young Writer in the Real World under the name Kerri Majors. She holds an MFA from Columbia University and founded YARN, an award-winning literary journal of short-form YA writing. A writing professor for many years, she now writes full-time and lives with her daughter and dog in a leafy suburb west of Boston, Massachusetts. ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6PXqnSyLzOw