Last month at DeadDarlings, we were lucky enough to speak to two authors about their debut works. Ladee Hubbard told us about what led to The Talented Ribkins (Melville House, 2017) and Arif Anwar shared how he wrote The Storm, (HarperCollins/Simon & Schuster May 2018).

Ladee: What did it take to get The Talented Ribkins sold and onto the bookshelves?

This month at DeadDarlings, we spoke to two graduates of the Novel Incubator program—Belle Brett and Stephanie Gayle. They told us all about their recently published novels and the craft lessons from class and life that they applied to their books.

Belle Brett’s debut novel, Gina in the Floating World follows twenty-something American expatriate Dorothy Falwell’s unplanned reinvention from bank intern to bar hostess in 1980’s Tokyo. According to Kirkus Review, “Brett’s engaging and compulsively readable debut traces one woman’s erotic coming-of-age in a frank, intelligent manner… A sharply observed and unforgettable debut.”

What drew you …

Last month at DeadDarlings, we were lucky enough to speak with three authors who’ve recently had new novels released. You can read the full interviews with Jenna Blum, Julia Fine, and Rebecca Makkai on our site, but we thought it would be fun for us to share what edits they took on before publishing their latest work. 

Jenna Blum, best-selling author and Grub Instructor

Jenna Blum, a 20-year Grub Street teacher and New York Times bestselling author of Those Who Save Us (Harcourt, 2002) and The Stormchasers (Dutton, 2010), has just published her …

Asking for endorsements from established writers for your upcoming book can be a cringe-worthy endeavor. Katrin Schumann looks at how to do it right.

Does it influence you when a writer you admire endorses a book you're considering buying? For most readers, seeing killer blurbs from known names can make the difference. 

This month at DeadDarlings, New York Times bestselling author Madeline Miller spoke with author and Novel Incubator graduate Rachel Barenbaum about Miller's latest novel, Circe. The book, which was released by Little, Brown this year, traces Circe’s life from her childhood in Helios’ halls where she meets Prometheus, to her exile on Aiaia where she is launched into meeting Daedalus, Odysseus, Medea, the Minotaur and more. You can read the full interview on our blog, but here are some of the highlights for all the writers in the room. 

Most of our readers are writers—and …