Daniel Pinchbeck is out there. Maybe even way out there, depending on where you are, but he is also most definitely a man of action. As a young man living in New York City and working as a journalist, Daniel faced what he calls a spiritual crisis. Many people in his situation might have just weathered the storm, maybe taken up yoga or found a hobby…

THE WELL AND THE MINE is the story of a family living in an Alabama coal mining town in the 1930s. The story begins when nine-year-old Tess watches from the darkness of her back porch as an unknown woman lifts the cover off the family well and tosses a baby in without a word. As Tess struggles at first to be believed and then later to find the “Wel…

NY Times Bestselling author Eric Jerome Dickey and I are kindred spirits. While I am not a NY Times Bestselling author, we both started out in IT and ended up in books and we both had stops along the way that included acting and stand-up comedy. A couple of years ago I actually interviewed Eric on the phone for the radio show I was doing at the tim…

You know how you and your sister talk to each other in a way that is completely different from the way you talk to anyone else? Well guess what… that would still be true if you were both famous, successful authors! Meet sisters and authors Lauren Myracle and Susan Rebecca White. Lauren, the just slightly older sister is known for her hugely popular…

When an author hits the New York Times Bestseller List things change. He or she can become intoxicated by their new found fame… begin to demand a special kind of bottled water in his or her dressing room, and… oh wait… that doesn’t usually happen with authors. In fact, they rarely have dressing rooms. But one thing that does happen is that all the …

When 14 year old Hannah Salwen saw a homeless man begging for food on the side of the road she knew something wasn’t right and she knew she wanted to do something to fix it. The Salwen’s were well off and already heavily involved in some local charities but for Hannah that just wasn’t enough. After much discussion, her mother Joan finally said “Wha…

Juliet Gael is living a life that most of us can only dream about. She lives in Florence, Italy where she researches her favorite topics and writes novels about them. Pretty great, right? I know I’m all sorts of jealous. That said, Juliet works hard. Her debut novel ROMANCING MISS BRONTË is incredibly well researched and as close to the real thing …

Holly LeCraw is the real life hero of book nerds everywhere. Her dad founded Oxford Books in Atlanta and she grew up with her nose in a book. Now she’s a writer herself and her brand new book THE SWIMMING POOL is really making waves (pun fully intended). Though it may look like a beach book, it’s really much more than that. THE SWIMMING POOL is at …

Norris Church Mailer is a real person. That may seem like an odd way to start a blog post but her memoir and her life could be the stuff of great fiction. A beautiful girl, a much older famous man, his former wives, his large brood of children, a modeling career, famous friends, attendance at historical events, and the list goes on. But what makes …

THE SWEET BY AND BY is one of those books that stays with you long after you’ve put it down. Debut author Todd Johnson has drawn the characters so vividly and with so much love that, for me, they have become woven into the fabric of my own memories. I know when I think of a true caretaker, the person I’ll imagine is Lorraine, and when I am talking …

Jeffrey Stepakoff has a career that many people would drool over (myself included); great success as a writer and producer in Hollywood, followed by an incredibly well received first novel, FIREWORKS OVER TOCCOA. But that wasn’t the plan when he first started out. When we sat down to talk last week Jeffrey said “he just wanted to be left alone to w…

Sarah Addison Allen’s fans expect her books to be full of magic and her latest The Girl Who Chased the Moon doesn’t disappoint. This book has magic wallpaper, sweet sense, mystical lights that inexplicably roam the woods at night and even a giant. While some of the magic is there to advance the plot, some is just there for fun. The book, like all o…

Patricia Sprinkle has written almost thirty books in her writing career. Most of them are mysteries but she takes a break from all that for her latest work Hold Up the Sky. Hold Up the Sky is a story about 4 women relying on each other through some fairly difficult times. It takes place during a drought in a small Georgia farming town and though no…

Have you ever eaten a dessert so delicious you had no words to describe it? I mean you could try; “it’s rich…delicious…so chocolatey”, or maybe “so delicate…it melts in your mouth…the perfect blend”, but really the words just don’t do it justice. That’s kind of how I feel about Little Bee. And whoever wrote the back cover copy clearly agrees with m…

I met Wendy Wax, author of Magnolia Wednesdays and The Accidental Bestseller several years ago through work and we became friends. Good friends. The kind of friends that know each others families and drink wine together whenever possible. So, reading a book by a friend has an interesting quality to it, as does interviewing them. When reading, I thi…

Interviewing an author is not as straight forward as you might think. Often they are coming in from out of town for 24 hours or less and have a fairly tight schedule while they are here. Sometimes the authors have been affected by the congestion and general purpose ickiness that is Atlanta traffic. Sometimes the schedule is plagued by the questiona…

Ask any overnight success how easy their success really was and they’ll tell you it certainly didn’t feel overnight to them. Janice Y. K. Lee is no exception to that. THE PIANO TEACHER is Janice’s debut novel and she admittedly didn’t have too much trouble finding a publisher, but she did spend 5 years writing the book as well as several years in a…

Did you ever have one of those days? The kind where everything comes together and you know you are doing what you are meant to be doing? That’s how I felt when I finished reading OUTCASTS UNITED and knew that I would have the opportunity to meet and interview author Warren St. John and help get the word out about this great book. The book tells the…

I met Mary Kay Andrews for the first time in 2006 when BLUE CHRISTMAS first came out. She came to my little bookstore to do a signing and could not have been more supportive or gracious. Already a New York Times bestselling author she could have been a total diva – but she was exactly the opposite. Since then I’ve gotten to know Mary Kay through va…

Healthy Child Healthy World is an easy to use guide for creating a safe, green and clean home for your babies and children (even the ones who haven’t been born yet – and the ones that are grown up but just act like babies!). Complete with a shopping guide, recipes for cleaning products and expert opinions, this is a great resource for parents and p…

Talk about a page turner. Lisa Unger’s DIE FOR YOU gets going on page one and never really lets up. And though it really moves, somehow the characters (especially Isabelle), really come to life and some big issues are tackled. Lies, secrets, love and family to name a few. I had the opportunity to speak to Lisa on the phone recently about her latest…

Meeting Mike Farrell was cool. There is no other way to say it. I grew up watching M*A*S*H and felt like I already knew him. This feeling was only amplified by reading his very personal and heartfelt memoir JUST CALL ME MIKE. So when I saw Mike heading across the floor of the Chicago Green Festival, I ran right up to him and said “Hi Mike” as if we…

Greg Palast is a character. And I mean that in the best possible way. This is a guy you want at your dinner parties. Sadly, I don’t actually have dinner parties – but if I did, Greg Palast would always get an invite. From his signature hat to his biting wit and his unforgiving commentary, Greg will keep you laughing until he’s made a difference. Th…

Michael Malone is the best award winning, New York Times bestselling author you’ve never heard of. His latest novel, THE FOUR CORNERS OF THE SKY, is a rare combination of page turning adventure and deeply complex writing. And it should be — he spent 10 years writing it. You get the feeling when you talk to Michael that he doesn’t write for the mone…

When you meet Ann Brashares you can see immediately that she is the perfect person to write for young adults. Though she has three kids of her own she seems to have held onto a sweetness and openness that you sense when you meet her and feel when you read her books. Ann came to our office on the last stop of her book tour for her latest book 3 WILL…

I got the chance to sit down with Laura Flanders recently at the Green Festival in Seattle. This is a busy, smart woman who knows how to talk and knows what she is talking about. After all that’s what she does for a living. In addition to being an author, Laura Flanders hosts GRITtv – a daily talk show which airs online as well as on satellite, cab…

John Perkins is the real deal. A former economic hit man, he was actually part of the problem he describes in THE SECRET HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN EMPIRE. But Perkins didn’t like what he saw happening and chose not to be a part of it anymore. He literally risked his life to expose the game. What’s great about Perkins’ books is they are written for re…

Matthew Pearl barely looks old enough to have written one book, let alone three incredibly well researched national and international bestsellers. But he has…and he got some impressive degrees while doing it. A graduate of Harvard University and Yale Law School, Matthew actually started writing his first novel, THE DANTE CLUB while he was still in …

Atlanta traffic almost got in the way of my interview with Laura Lippman about her new book LIFE SENTENCES. She was scheduled to be at my office at 5PM, but had to be across town for a signing event at 7Pm that same day. When she saw the traffic, she didn’t think it would work and was on the brink of cancelling or rescheduling at least. But I was d…

Jodi Picoult came by my office on a Wednesday afternoon while she was in Atlanta for her book tour. And while I’ve had the pleasure of interviewing NY Times bestselling authors before, I’m definitely not as cool as I should be and I was nervous. I mean, after all Jodi Picoult is not just any author she’s the kind of author whose books jump to #1 on…

Why do you fall in love with one person rather than another? In her new book Dr. Helen Fisher identifies four biological personality styles generated by brain chemistry; then using her study of 28,000 people, she shows who is naturally drawn to whom. Dr. Fisher is the chief scientific advisor for CHEMISTRY.COM and her personality type test has alre…

Ever hear of a bug loving, Cornell educated “Eco-Model”? I hadn’t — not until I heard about Summer Rayne Oakes. She’s the real deal – a talented, smart environmental activist who is also a fashion and beauty industry insider. I had the chance to sit down with Summer Rayne to talk about her new book STYLE, NATURALLY where she details the best way to…

I got a chance to talk to Stephen Cannell on the phone a couple of days before his visit to Atlanta on his book tour for ON THE GRIND. It was a Saturday morning at about 9AM my time, meaning 6AM for him and he had already been up writing for several hours. I was a bit nervous for the call, knowing that in addition to being a New York Times bestsell…

I got a hold of Beautiful Boy and Tweak less than 24 hours before I had the chance to meet and interview David Sheff and his son Nic. And what an interesting 24 hours it was. I spent that time totally immersed in their story and felt like I was seeing old friends when they arrived at the office. Although their books feel completely different and ar…

Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor might be the only person you’ll meet who wouldn’t take back the massive stroke she suffered at age 37. In her book, My Stroke of Insight, she says the feelings of bliss and connection to the universe she experienced while her left brain shut down has taught her to appreciate life in the present moment more than ever. In prepar…

Molly Fletcher is a modern day female Jerry Maguire – she is one of the top sports agents in the country and she is one of very few females that job. In between managing some huge names in sports like John Smoltz, Kyle Davies, Lenny Wilkens and Doc Rivers, Molly found time to write Your Dream Job Game Plan. In her first book Molly Fletcher teaches …

Benyamin Cohen is a funny guy. He’s a funny guy that tackles the serious subject of reconnecting with his faith and spirituality in his memoir My Jesus Year. Benyamin is the son of an Orthodox rabbi who grew up practicing his Judaism while thinking that the grass looked greener at the church across the street. As he grew up he felt that he saw in C…

A couple weeks ago, I had the privilege of chatting on the phone with internationally acclaimed and award-winning activist Van Jones about his book The Green Collar Economy. Van was both informative and funny – at one point comparing clean coal to having unicorns pull our cars. I sincerely hope you enjoy listening to the interview as much as I enjo…