Upcoming Agent Spotlight Interviews & Guest Posts

  • Mark O'Brien Agent Spotlight Interview and Query Critique Giveaway on 6/11/2025
  • Taj McCoy Agent Spotlight Interview and Query Critique Giveaway on 7/30/2025
  • Shelly Romero Agent Spotlight Interview and Query Critique Giveaway on 8/20/2025

Agent Spotlight & Agent Spotlight Updates

  • Agent Spotlights & Interviews were all edited in 2021. Every year since then, I update some of them. I also regularly add information regarding changes in their agency as I find it. I have been updated through the letter "N" as of 1/26/2024 and many have been reviewed by the agents. Look for more information as I find the time to update more agent spotlights.

Author Interview: Kate Larkindale and Standing Too Close Giveaway and IWSG Post

 Happy Wednesday Everyone! Today I’m excited to have Kate Larkindale, part of the IWSG, here to share about her YA contemporary Standing Too Close, which releases on 8/5/2025. It sounds like a gripping story with high stakes, and I’m looking forward to reading it. 

Here’s a blurb from Amazon:

Seventeen-year-old Blue Lannigan believes in exactly one thing: his two younger brothers deserve more than the crappy apartment and abusive, drunken mother they’re stuck with. And when he comes home to find one brother bruised and bleeding (again), the other cowering in terror (again) and their mother drunk off her ass, blaming all three of them for her tanked singing career (again), Blue decides waiting until he’s 18 to leave is no longer an option.

Deciding to hole up in an empty house at the lake until Blue can figure out what to do next, things get more complicated when the owner of the house arrives unexpectedly. Especially when Blue realizes the unconscious woman they’ve tied up on the couch isn’t a stranger after all, but someone who could give him just what he’s looking for.

After avoiding reality and playing house, a scene at the grocery store lands him in handcuffs and his brothers with a social worker. Add to that losing his job and being stuck in a group home he hates, and Blue’s sole purpose becomes finding his brothers and getting them out of whatever hellhole they’re in. Blue’s hopes unravel, and betrayal rips his heart in two as he tries to reconcile the role he plays in his brothers’ lives while trying to figure out his own.


Before I get to Kate’s interview, I have my IWSG post. 

Posting: The first Wednesday is officially Insecure Writer's Support Group Day. 

Purpose: To share and encourage. Writers can express doubts and concerns without fear of appearing foolish or weak. Those who have been through the fire can offer assistance and guidance. It’s a safe haven for insecure writers of all kinds!

The awesome co-hosts this month are:  Rebecca Douglass, Cathrina Constantine, Louise Barbour and me! 

Optional Question: Is there a genre you haven’t tried writing in yet that you really want to try? If so, do you plan on trying it? 

I read a lot of mysteries and have been getting into cozy fantasies, which sometimes involve solving a mystery. I’d like to write a YA cozy mystery or cozy mystery/fantasy someday. I have some ideas about the characters and setting. 

Will I ever write one? I really can’t say. I’m pretty busy with the blog, my crocheting, and life in general lately, so I haven’t been writing too much. I don’t know if I’ll just revise the manuscripts I’ve written or start this new project. I’m taking it day by day and am okay with this approach for now.

Interview With Kate Larkindale 

Hi Kate! Thanks so much for joining us. 

1. Tell us about yourself and how you became a writer. 

I’ve always written, ever since I was a little kid.  My first story was published in the Kidstuff pages of our local newspaper when I was six and I never really stopped.  For a while, when I was a teenager and young adult, it was kind of a clandestine thing I did in secret and never told anyone about, but then I decided to try and publish some of the things I’d written and “came out” as a writer. 

After moving to a new country every two or three years throughout my childhood, I now live in New Zealand where I work for a company that produces live arts events and experiences. I recently pushed myself way out of my comfort zone by becoming a group fitness instructor at my gym. 

2. Where did you get the idea for Standing Too Close? 

I think this is a story I’ve been trying to write for years, to deal with something that happened to a friend of mine.  All my other attempts to write his story were too literal and close to the bone and never worked.  Standing Too Close takes the core of his story and spins it in a very different direction to what actually happened.  And I managed to finish it this time.  Phew! 

Your Writing Process 

3. Did you plot this story out, or were you a pantser? Share about your plotting process. 

I am probably the most chaotic writer on the planet!  I can’t plot.  If I try to write an outline of a novel, I never write it because I know what’s going to happen.  I tend to start by writing the scene that sparks me the most, whether that’s at the beginning, the middle or the end.  I usually don’t know when I write that first scene, where it might end up.  I just use it as a starting point and write both ways around it until I have a book.  I know it probably makes no sense to anyone else, but this is a process that’s worked for me across multiple books now, so I’m sticking to it.  

I recently decided to try and write something in order, from start to finish and wound up writing 30K words twice (taking the story in different directions) before realizing it was hopeless and I’d written the story from the wrong POV character.  So I went back to my usual messy, chaotic writing style and am comfortably about 2/3 of the way through the new book - now written from the other characters POV.   Still not 100% sure where it’s going to start, but I have written the ending.  Always good to have something to aim for, even if I have no clue how I’ll get there. 

4. It’s fascinating to learn about your plotting process. Blue is a complicated character. Did you know his character when you started this manuscript, or did he develop as you wrote it? What are your tips for writing in a story from a male POV? 

A lot of Blue developed as I wrote him.  Because I had my friend and his story as the starting point, I pulled a lot of stuff from him and his brothers and the way they related to one another, but as the book grew, the characters took on lives of their own and no one really resembles their real-life counterparts anymore.  I really enjoyed writing Blue because he’s very mature and old for his years in some ways, but also very, very immature in others. 

I’ve always been comfortable writing a male POV.  Most of my friends growing up were boys and I have two sons, so I’m around male voices a lot.  

5. It’s cool you feel so comfortable writing from a guy’s POV. You have a day job in addition to being a writer. How do you juggle the two and keep writing manuscripts that are ready to be submitted to your editor regularly? 

I actually have two day jobs and finding time to write on top is often a struggle.  I get up at 5:30 every morning so I can get time to write and do writing-related chores (like doing this interview… it’s 5:45am here as I write this) before I have to go to work.  I also make sure I get some time over the weekends to write, even if it is just one afternoon.  And I occasionally take a day off work to devote to writing and take my laptop to the library or somewhere else quiet and work for a full day. 

I’m lucky to have a fantastic critique group too, as well as an established group of readers who give me feedback and help me whip my messy-ass first drafts into something resembling an actual book. 

Your Journey to Publication 

6. Your publisher is Evernight Teen. How did you get your first contract with them? What has it been like submitting subsequent manuscripts to them? 

My first published novel, An Unstill Life, was published by a publisher that went out of business about 18 months or so after publication, so I was looking for opportunities for that book and submitted it to Evernight Teen because they took previously published work if you had the rights.  It was a great process and the book sold reasonably well, so when I had my next one ready to go, I decided to send them that too. 

All the books I’ve published with Evernight have been “editor’s picks” and I feel like I have a pretty good relationship with them now.  I like the fact I get a lot of input into the cover art and can usually work with them to pick a release date that works with my marketing and publicity timeline. 

7. I know from following your blog that you’re also trying to find an agent to represent you. Why did you decide to do this, and how are you tackling this? 

I’ve had an agent before and I really miss having that kind of partnership in my career.  I went it alone after losing my last agent because the whole experience was horrible and quite traumatizing, but it’s been long enough now, that I’m over that, I really want to have someone in my corner with me again.  I don’t feel like I can advance my career to the level I’d like to without an agent’s help. 

So I’m back in the query trenches, looking for an agent for a book that is kind of a spin off from Standing Too Close in the sense that some of the research I did for that book led to me finding the story I wanted to tell in A Stranger to Kindness. 

Promoting Your Book 

8. How are you planning to promote Standing Too Close? How have your marketing strategies changed over the years? 

I’ve worked with a company called Itsy Bits Book Bits on my last couple of releases and had great results from a 3 week online book tour, so I’m doing that around release week in August.  I also reach out to book bloggers to get reviews - reviews are so important!  I’m in that process now, since I have ARCs available.  And of course, there’s social media.  I’m not great at social media and I don’t like it much, but it’s an unfortunate reality these days, that you have to do it.   So, I’m trying to be more active across the social platforms I use and to post about the book once or twice a week until release day. 

9. That’s great that you found a company to arrange your blog tours. What are you working on now? 

I’m writing a new novel which doesn’t have a firm title yet.  It’s about a couple of kids living on the street and the friendship they develop.  I’m calling it a platonic love story and it’s told through one of the characters’ journal entries as he tries to keep himself from becoming a drug addict while managing chronic pain. 

And then I surprised myself by also starting an MG novel.  I’ve never written for that age group before, but this story just wouldn’t leave me alone, so I started writing it.  No idea where it’ll go, but it’s kind of fun to have something a little more innocent to work on when I need a break from the other book which is quite dark and heavy. 

Thanks for sharing all your advice, Kate. You can find Kate at: 

Blog: http://katelarkindale.blogspot.com/

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4086706.Kate_Larkindale?

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Kate-Larkindale/author/B00HWQDU4S?

BookBub: https://partners.bookbub.com/authors/5227615/edit

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AuthorKateLarkindale

Instagram/Threads/Bluesky: @Vampyr14

Standing Too Close is available for pre-sale now at all your favorite e-book retailers and will be available in print in around September. 

Giveaway Details 

Kate is generously offering a pre-order of an e-book of Standing Too Close for a giveaway. To enter, all you need to do is be a follower of my blog (via the follower gadget, email, or bloglovin’ on the right sidebar) and leave a comment by July 12th. If I do not have your email (I can no longer get it from your Google Profile), you must leave it in the comments to enter the contest. Please be sure I have your email address. 

If you mention this contest on Twitter, Facebook, or other social media sites and/or follow me on Twitter or Bluesky or follow Kate on her social media sites, mention this in the comments, and I'll give you an extra entry for each. You must be 13 years old or older to enter. This book giveaway is International. 

Upcoming Interviews, Guest Posts, and Blog Hops 

My schedule is a little lighter this month because I’m going to visit family with my daughter this month.

Monday, July 7th I have an interview with author Natalie Richards and a giveaway of her MG Survive This Safari

Monday, July 14th I have an interview with debut author Sarah Mendonca with a giveaway of her MG An Enchantora's Guide to Monstros & Magic

Wednesday, July 16th I’m participating in the Hip Hip Hooray Giveaway Hop

Monday, July 28th I have an interview with author Marzieh Abbas and a giveaway of her MG Aarzu All Around

Wednesday, July 30th I have an agent spotlight interview with Taj McCoy and a query critique giveaway 

I hope to see you on Monday!

 

Sparkle Time Giveaway Hop

Happy Friday Everyone! Today I'm excited to participate in the Sparkle Time Giveaway Hop hosted by MamatheFox and MomDoesReviews. I hope you're enjoying your summer. I've been unfortunately taking care of major house repairs--a chimney repair and a new roof. Thankfully, that's all behind me, and I am looking forward to a fun July. 

Book of Your Choice or Amazon Gift Card Giveaway 

I’ve got a lot of exciting newly released MG and YA book choices this month that you might like. You can also choose another book in the series by these authors or a book of your choice. You can find descriptions of these books on Goodreads. Here are your choices:























If you haven't found a book you want, you can win a $10 Amazon Gift Card.

 

Giveaway Details

To enter, all you need to do is be a follower of my blog (via the follower gadget, email, or bloglovin’ on the right sidebar) and leave a comment by June 30th telling me whether you want a book, and if so, which one, or the Amazon gift card and your email address. Be sure to include your email address. If I do not have your email (I can no longer get it from your Google Profile), you must leave it in the comments to enter the contest. Please be sure I have your email address. 

If you mention this contest on Twitter, Facebook, or other social media sites and/or follow me on Twitter or Bluesky, mention this in the comments and I'll give you an extra entry for each. You must be 13 years old or older to enter. The book giveaway is U.S. only and the Amazon gift card giveaway is International.

Marvelous Middle Grade Monday is hosted by Greg Pattridge. You can find the participating blogs on his blog.

Upcoming Interviews, Guest Posts, and Blog Hops

Wednesday, July 2nd I have an interview with author Nia Davenport and a giveaway of her YA Love Spells Trouble and my IWSG post

Monday, July 7th I have an interview with author Natalie Richards and a giveaway of her MG Survive This Safari

Monday, July 14th I have an interview with debut author Sarah Mendonca with a giveaway of her MG An Enchantora's Guide to Monstros & Magic

Wednesday, July 16th I’m participating in the Hip Hip Hooray Giveaway Hop

Monday, July 28th I have an interview with author Marzieh Abbas and a giveaway of her MG Aarzu All Around

I hope to see you tomorrow!

And here are all the other blogs participating in this blog hop: 


MamatheFox, Mom Does Reviews, and all participating blogs are not held responsible for sponsors who fail to fulfill their prize obligations.

Author Interview: Michael P. Spradlin and Threat of the Spider Giveaway

 Happy Monday Everyone! Today I’m thrilled to have author Michael P. Spradin here to talk about his newest MG Threat of the Spider and his career as an author. Threat of the Spider is the second book in the Web of the Spider Series. It sounds like an action-packed story set in Nazi Germany, and I’m looking forward to reading it. 

Here’s a blurb from Goodreads:

 

A twelve-year-old boy searches for his father and fights for free press amid the chilling rise of Hitler’s Germany in this second book in the action-packed middle grade series Web of the Spider for fans of I Survived and A Night Divided.

Ansel has never been afraid to say what’s on his mind. He’s always the first among his friends to speak up when something doesn’t feel right. When the Hitler Youth first set up shop in Heroldsberg the year before, Ansel quickly made enemies of the chapter’s arrogant leader, Hans. Of course, Ansel is also twelve years old, so he spends much of his time reading his favorite Dirk Goodly, Boy Detective novels and trying to make his friends laugh.

But more and more of his classmates have been swayed by Hans’s tactics and the Youth organization is growing throughout the city. Ansel knows that Hans and his group are spreading false information—after all, Ansel’s father is a journalist for the local paper and has been going toe to toe with Nazi propaganda for a long time.

Then Ansel’s father goes missing right before a prominent Nazi leader comes to town. With the local police in the Nazi’s pocket, can Ansel and his friends use their detective skills to find his father and thwart the Nazi’s plans to suppress the truth?
 

Follower News 

Before I get to Michael’s interview, I have Follower News to share. Victoria Marie Lees released Determination: A Mother of Five Conquers College, her memoir, today. Here’s a blurb: You’re not smart enough. Determined to prove both her father and education authorities holding her daughter back they’re wrong, Victoria Marie Lees begins college. The challenge of college takes on a whole new meaning when you add five young children and self-doubt to the mix. And here are a few links:

Website

twitter

facebook

Instagram 

Interview With Michael P. Spradlin

Hi Michael! Thanks so much for joining us. 

1. Tell us about yourself and how you became a writer. 

It was a process. I loved to read as a kid. Really loved it. As I got older, I realized that I actually truly enjoyed the act of writing. But I grew up in a small town that—as far as I know—had no writers. I had no indication it was something you could do to make a living (and there are times it’s still not!). Fast forward to college, where I was a history major and an English minor. You tend to do a lot of writing in those disciplines. It was there that I had several professors start encouraging me about my “writing ability.” One flat out told me, “Dude, you need to do this for a living.” And that was where the idea took root! It wasn’t until I was in my forties though, that I found I had anything to say.  

2. Where did you get the idea for Threat of the Spider and the Web of the Spider Series? 

It morphed out of a conversation with my editor. I was interested in writing a book about the Edelweiss Pirates. They were a group of German young people (some as young as 12) who, during World War II, opposed Hitler and the Nazi regime and engaged in espionage as well as circulating anti-Nazi propaganda. Some were caught and executed (as young as 12). We started discussing the idea of resistance and how it might take root, and we eventually got back to those who might have opposed Hitler from the very beginning. It’s incredibly important to remember that not every German citizen was a Nazi, nor a Nazi supporter. 

Your Writing Process 

3. It’s cool that your editor helped you with the idea for this story. This isn’t the first series you’ve written. Tell us how you plotted the series, and when you plotted it out in relation to publishing Rise of the Spider, the first book in this series. When and in how much detail did you plot out this story?

We came up with a rough outline for each book—sort of covering the broad strokes we wanted to make sure we didn’t miss. But that was basically just a framework. I had a lot of latitude with characters and personalities. I would say the finished books are quite different from the original outline. 

4. How do you keep track of everything you need to know about Ansel, the main character of your story, as you tell his story over the books in this series? Do you have him work through an emotional in addition to the outward plot problem in each book? 

I tend to keep notes with character descriptions and personality traits. Ansel is the main character in Threat of the Spider, but he will be a secondary character in the other books, so it becomes a little easier to keep track of things. 

5. I’ve read that you don’t write every day. And you’ve successfully published over 39 books. How do you stay so productive and write so many stories that are good enough to be published? 

I don’t write every day. It’s just not possible for my brain! I can’t think of any job where someone does it intensely, every single day without their work suffering for it. I think it’s vital to step away and recharge. That said, when it is a writing day, make sure you write. 

Your Journey to Publication 

6. How did Timothy Travaglini become your agent? 

Tim and I had met at a conference years ago, and he actually became my editor on a couple of my books. He bought The Youngest Templar Trilogy while he was at Penguin and edited that. It’s probably been my most successful project to date! Eventually, he moved on to agenting and he was a natural choice when I was looking for a new agent. 

7. Your first book, The Legend of Blue Jacket, was published in 2002. What was your road to publishing that picture book? How did you get your publishing contract for this series? 

Most of my books happen because of conversations. I had a conversation about the story behind The Legend of Blue Jacket with an editor at a conference. They asked to see it and bought it. Just like that! I don’t have the “hundreds and hundreds” of rejections that so many other writers have. This series also came out of a similar conversation at a conference several years ago. It only goes to show that you never know how much time something is going to take. Hold onto those ideas! 

8. I think we’d all like to sell books through conversations like you have. You write for all ages and have published at least 34 books since 2002. How have you been able to steadily continue publishing for all these years? What advice do you have for new authors for growing their careers? 

There’s no secret! Write as well as you can and just keep doing it. Don’t give up. Worry about writing for your own pleasure and not so much for publication. Remember a book is written word by word, while a career is built reader by reader. 

Promoting Your Book 

9. How have you been promoting Threat of the Spider? How has your marketing of your books changed over the years? Why? 

The internet has changed everything. It has made it easier to reach larger groups of people more easily. But I still believe the onus is on the writer to write a great book, and the publisher to publish it well. Publishers do a good job of finding readers. If you stay true to your readers, I believe you’ll eventually find success. 

10. What are you working on now? 

I am working on the next book in the Web of the Spider series, The Spider Strikes, which will be out in 2026.

Thanks for sharing all your advice, Michael. You can find Michael at michaelspradlin.com, and on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and X. 

Giveaway Details 

Michael’s publisher is generously offering a paperback of Threat of the Spider for a giveaway. To enter, all you need to do is be a follower of my blog (via the follower gadget, email, or bloglovin’ on the right sidebar) and leave a comment by July 5th. If I do not have your email (I can no longer get it from your Google Profile), you must leave it in the comments to enter the contest. Please be sure I have your email address.

If you mention this contest on Twitter, Facebook, or other social media sites and/or follow me on Twitter or Bluesky or follow Michael on his social media sites, mention this in the comments, and I'll give you an extra entry for each. You must be 13 years old or older to enter. This book giveaway is U.S.

Marvelous Middle Grade Monday is hosted by Greg Pattridge. You can find the participating blogs on his blog.

Upcoming Interviews, Guest Posts, and Blog Hops

Tuesday, July 1st I’m participating in the Sparkle Time Giveaway Hop

Wednesday, July 2nd I have an interview with author Nia Davenport and a giveaway of her YA Love Spells Trouble and my IWSG post

Monday, July 7th I have an interview with author Natalie Richards and a giveaway of her MG Survive This Safari

Monday, July 14th I have an interview with debut author Sarah Mendonca with a giveaway of her MG An Enchantora's Guide to Monstros & Magic

Wednesday, July 16th I’m participating in the Hip Hip Hooray Giveaway Hop

Monday, July 28th I have an interview with author Marzieh Abbas and a giveaway of her MG Aarzu All Around

I hope to see you on Wednesday!

Dad-o-mite-Giveaway Hop

 

Happy Monday Everyone! Today I'm excited to participate in the Dad-o-mite Giveaway Hop hosted by MamatheFox and Mom Does Reviews. Can you believe it's already mid-June? I've been doing fun things with friends and am looking forward to a trip with my daughter to visit family in Dallas next month.

Book of Your Choice or Amazon Gift Card Giveaway 

This is a book of your choice or Amazon Gift Card giveaway. This month I want to highlight some middle grade great choices. You can find descriptions of these books on Goodreads. Here are your choices:

















Giveaway Details

To enter, all you need to do is be a follower of my blog (via the follower gadget, email, or bloglovin’ on the right sidebar) and leave a comment by June 30th telling me whether you want a book, and if so, which one, or the Amazon gift card and your email address. Be sure to include your email address. If I do not have your email (I can no longer get it from your Google Profile), you must leave it in the comments to enter the contest. Please be sure I have your email address. 

If you mention this contest on Twitter, Facebook, or other social media sites and/or follow me on Twitter or Bluesky, mention this in the comments and I'll give you an extra entry for each. You must be 13 years old or older to enter. The book giveaway is U.S. only and the Amazon gift card giveaway is International.

Marvelous Middle Grade Monday is hosted by Greg Pattridge. You can find the participating blogs on his blog.

Upcoming Interviews, Guest Posts, and Blog Hops

Monday, June 23rd I have an interview with author Michael Spradlin and a giveaway of his MG Threat of the Spider

Tuesday, July 1st I’m participating in the Sparkle Time Giveaway Hop

Wednesday, July 2nd I have an interview with author Nia Davenport and a giveaway of her YA Love Spells Trouble and my IWSG post

Monday, July 7th I have an interview with author Natalie Richards and a giveaway of her MG Survive This Safari

I hope to see you on Monday!

And here are all the blogs participating in this blog hop:



MamatheFox, Mom Does Reviews, and all participating blogs are not held responsible for sponsors who fail to fulfill their prize obligations.