Category: Debut Novel

The Big Pitch: Gratitude Over Fear

It’s writers conference season and literary hopefuls all over the country are polishing their pitches, fine tuning their queries. Is the hook sharp enough? Are the stakes high enough? What if I freeze up when I finally meet my dream…

The Genius of Thomas Wolfe

I wanted to see the movie, Genius, because it was about Maxwell Perkins, the famed editor of F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway. But it is really about Perkins’ relationship with Thomas Wolfe, who I’m embarrassed to say, I had…

Q&A with Kelly J. Ford, author of Cottonmouths

My fellow Dead Darlings contributor and site editor, Cara Wood, sent along these questions in anticipation of the launch of my debut novel, Cottonmouths, on June 6, 2017. Echoing the work of authors like Daniel Woodrell and Sarah Waters, Cottonmouths is an unflinching story about the ways in…

ARCs: The Oh F*ck Phase

I’ve been working on edits pretty much non-stop since I sold my debut novel (along with mourning my poor dead cat, getting married, going to Chile, and unfollowing relatives on Facebook). There was the big developmental edit. Then came the line…