Interview with Tara Badstubner, Author of Every Room Remembers

 

Tara Badstubner lives in Pennsylvania and is busy creating her next novel surrounded by her husband, children, grandbabies, and several silly dogs. Every Room Remembers is her debut novel, releasing in September 2026 from Sibylline Press. A former Artist-In-Residence for Bookgardan, Tara can be found at tarabadstubner.com and on Instagram @tarabadstubner.

What inspired you to write Every Room Remembers? How did you create your protagonist SJ?

The novel began to take shape during COVID. The exceptional loss that we all absorbed daily put me in a tough headspace. A dear mentor suggested I write into my fears instead of trying to ignore them. Her suggestion allowed me to feel the loss and heartache deeply but through the safe guise of my fictional protagonist, SJ.

Do you believe the natural world sends us signs?

I feel I’ve benefited many times from signs appearing at just the right moment, encouraging me or comforting me. For me, signs often come through cherished songs that hold significance, through the appearance of certain animals, and through numbers.

What is the significance of the animals portrayed in the book?

Each animal in the novel represents something unique. For instance, the book opens with the appearance of a black snake. The snake in some cultures is a harbinger of change or transformation. Right after this scene, SJ’s and Wyatt’s lives experience the ultimate transformation. If we can attune our senses to the more subtle communications all around, then we’ll be amazed how much the mystical world is trying to engage with us.

What inspired you to write about “the other side of grief” from Wyatt’s perspective?

We always think of grief in terms of the one left behind, and that’s so strange to me. An unanticipated death is bound to affect both the living and the deceased, as so much remains unresolved. I wanted to give the dead a voice beyond being mourned and canonized. They were imperfect; they had struggles and foibles, and death doesn’t negate their humanity.

How do we cope with the feelings of regret and lack of resolution that often come with great loss?

In my novel, my characters are good people in a loving but flawed marriage. They didn’t always get it right, and there was much left unresolved. Who among us always gets it right? But gradually, SJ and Wyatt learn to recognize and have faith in the extraordinary tenacity and goodwill of life. Yes, there is heartache and punishing turns, but I do believe that love has the final word, whether in this life or what lies beyond.

What is the significance of setting this story in Beaufort, SC?

The region of Beaufort, South Carolina first appears on maps in the 1500s as Santa

Elena, so it has seen a lot, experienced a lot. I wanted a place where one senses that compressed energy of many lives lived, all the joys and all the heartaches. Practically everyone in Beaufort has a ghost story they’ll gladly tell you. It’s part of the fabric of the town, this fragile veil between the living and the dead.

Are you interested in interior design like your protagonist?

Yes, SJ and I share a love for interior design. I consider it to be a kind of artistic expression. I grew up with a mom who loved making her home beautiful and welcoming, and for better or for worse, I’m the same way. For me, home can be a refuge.

What do you hope your readers will take away from the book?

I hope that those who experience deep grief feel seen and held with love. Grief can be so isolating and sometimes the only thing a person has the bandwidth for is a book—not texts, lunch dates, or visitors at their door, but the humble book that one can pick up and put down at leisure. I want readers to experience the slow resurrection of SJ’s life and through her imagine a life for themselves where there are still one or two wonderful surprises waiting for them.

Every Room Remembers

Tara Badstubner | September 25, 2026 | Sibylline Press | Literary Fiction

Paperback | ISBN: 9798897409167 | $22.00 Ebook | ISBN: 9798897409150 | $5.99

Purchase from Amazon

Interview with Glenn R. Miller, Author of Rough Cuts

Glenn R. Miller is the author of the forthcoming novel, Rough Cuts (Koehler Books, September, 2026), and of the critically acclaimed and award-winning novel Doorman Wanted (“A comic novel that doffs its hat to master humorist P. G. Wodehouse”—Minnesota Star Tribune; “…sly, sophisticated wit…” The Miami Herald). Miller launched his professional career by working on television soap operas and game shows on the back lots of NBC Burbank. He holds a master’s degree from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism and has served as a CBS-affiliate news producer, public television producer, and creative director at production agencies within the Twin Cities. Glenn and his wife live in Minneapolis, MN, and are the parents of two grown sons. 

Website:

glenn-r-miller.com 

Socials:

https://www.instagram.com/glennrmillerauthor

https://www.linkedin.com/in/glennrmillerauthor

Where did you grow up?

I grew up in Edina, Minnesota, a suburb of Minneapolis. 

When did you begin writing?

I have been writing professionally my entire life, but my creative writing began in 2012. 

Do you feel your hometown influenced your writing?

Possibly. One of the best writing exercises I ever had sticks with me to this day. It was an editing technique taught by my 9^th grade English teacher. She was young, ruthless, and brilliant. 

Do you write every day or when you can sneak in time?

At this point in my writing ‘career,’ I attempt to carve out 2-3 full days per week that are dedicated solely to writing. And when I’m not actually sitting and writing, I’m thinking about writing. I need large chunks of time to immerse myself in whatever story I’m working on. As more of my days are filled with presentations, book-related activities, or marketing related to the upcoming book, those designated writing days have become that much more important to me. 

What is your best advice for creating the time and space to write?

Yes, good question. I treat writing like my previous client work, where I simply put it on the calendar and that assigned time becomes sacrosanct. I used to regard a writing day as, essentially, an open day. That mindset allowed far too many interruptions to creep in. No more. Now, with blocked-out writing days, I shut the office door and tune out all interruptions. The only thing that allows me to leave the desk is a walk or a bike ride, both of which I find to be surprisingly productive. I have worked out countless plot or dialog issues while walking along the river or sitting atop a bike.

My other bit of advice? Put the phone and all its app-induced interruptions far out of reach. 

What is this book about?

My description for Rough Cuts: 

In Rough Cuts, the world of film in 1926 is about to change forever. On the cusp of “talkies,” directors and actors fear their greatest days might soon be behind them. Patrick J. Shepard, a director at the end of his career, has just completed his masterpiece, his vehicle for eternal fame. But there’s one problem: Ohio. 

Harold Dawdry, the young, second-string minister at a small church in a corner of Ohio, has been appointed to the State Film Censorship Board. He regards this appointment as his ticket to the power and relevance he desperately craves. There is one director who has particularly rankled his delicate sensibilities: Patrick J. Shepard. The minister feels Ohio is best served if Shepard makes drastic cuts to his final film. 

The silent film era is about to get loud. 

What inspired you to write it? 

The idea came like a lightning bolt. One day a few years back, my mother-in-law told me that she had been going through her grandfather’s files. Included amongst his papers were two long boxes containing 4X6 notecards. On each card were notes of changes that needed to be made to Hollywood films issued in 1926 and 1927. Turns out Grandpa – who was professionally a minister in Marietta, Ohio – had been assigned to the Ohio Film Review Board. Though I had vaguely heard of the Hays Office, I was unaware that a handful of individual states had their own review (read: censorship) boards. That a small-town Ohio minister had the power to alter Hollywood films fascinated me. I immediately jumped into research on this issue and committed to writing Rough Cuts in 2023. It is a satire that looks at power, legacy, and the fragility of creative expression in an ‘open’ society. 

Was the road to publication smooth sailing or a bumpy ride? 

It actually was quite smooth. Because of the success of my first novel, Doorman Wanted, my publisher, Koehler Books, signed on quickly for this second novel. Compared to Doorman Wanted, which took ten years to write, Rough Cuts gushed out of me. I had a polished draft in 18 months. 

If you knew then what you know now, is there anything you would have done differently? 

This may sound harsh, but I would not have spent the time I did in looking for an agent. I haven’t cracked that code yet, nor am I spending any more time trying to do so! 

What is up next for you? 

I have attended more than 80 book clubs and made dozens of presentations around Doorman Wanted since its publication in 2024. At every one of them, I receive two questions from attendees: When will the movie be made, and when will the sequel come out? From what I can tell, I have control over only one of those two. Initially, I was saying ‘no’ to a sequel, but by the twentieth time I heard the question, I started to think, ‘Hunh. Well… maybe there IS a sequel!’ So, I am currently about 3/4s of the way through writing my further adventures of the Doorman. As I tell audiences, I’m having a great time revisiting my cast of characters, my ‘imaginary friends.’

Purchase Links:

Publisher: https://www.koehlerbooks.com/writer/glenn-r-miller/ 

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Rough-Cuts-Glenn-R-Miller/dp/B0GXNDYXSV/ 

Bookshop: https://bookshop.org/p/books/rough-cuts/388b5b16c8b5f574 

Barnes and Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/rough-cuts-glenn-r-miller/1149931154

 

 

Guest Post from Anne Shaw Heinrich, Author of House of Teeth

Anne Shaw Heinrich’s work has been published in numerous outlets, most recently, Writer’s Digest, Education Weekly, and Ms. Magazine, as well as The New York Times bestseller The Right Words at the Right Time, Volume 2: Your Turn (Atria 2006) and Chicken Soup for the Soul's The Cancer Book: 101 Stories of Courage, Support and Love (2009). Her debut novel, God Bless the Child, was the first in The Women of Paradise County Series published by Speaking Volumes. House of Teeth, the third book in the Series, releases in June 2026. Learn more at anneshawheinrich.com.

 

Follow Anne Shaw Heinrich on social media: 

Threads: @anne_shaw_heinrich | Instagram: @anne_shaw_heinrich | TikTok: @ash34249

Pushing Your Characters to Their Tipping Points 

When someone snaps and it seems like the break comes out of nowhere, those of us who have made a good number of trips around the sun know that such outbursts actually come from somewhere and everywhere. 

We understand overflowing buckets, and know how untended boiling water boils over, but we’re often startled if in the room when a person buckles under pressures, both seen and unseen. We’re uncomfortable, sometimes defensive or offended. If we’re interested, we can guess at the factors that brought on the boil. To do so is an act of humanity that the collective we should probably consider more often. 

One of the things I enjoy most about writing fiction is the chance to take those deep dives with characters and find ways to help readers consider the many factors that result in moments of unbearable tension. One of my favorite such moments takes place in God Bless the Child, the first novel in The Women of Paradise County Series. 

By the time readers get to the scene, they don’t know everything that has happened to the primary character, Mary Kline. Not even close; but they do know that she’s in way over her head, having taken in Pearl Davis, a vulnerable girl who has given birth to a daughter, Elizabeth. Mary believes herself to be the child’s mother until she sees the undeniable, biological truth: 

“ …I do indulge in forbidden emotions, like love and lust, and envy and anger. I exercise my rights as a part of the animal kingdom. Female animals often take on the role of mother to abandoned infants of another species. They feed these babies, hold them, love them, clean them, and naturally feel territorial… 

…Once, when Elizabeth was about seven months old, I hauled off and slapped Pearl as hard as I could. Mother and Daddy were already at the store, so it was just us three girls. I’d put water on to make hot chocolate. The teapot whistled, so I left the girls in the parlor. When I returned to the doorway with a tray of hot chocolate, I saw the thing I dreaded most… 

…Pearl stood there in her long nightgown, holding Elizabeth to her cheek. She was humming soft mama songs in her baby’s ear, swaying the instinctive mother-sway: back-and-forth, back-and-forth, foot-to-foot. She was a natural. Elizabeth snuggled into her mother’s neck, looking more contented than ever. I froze. 

 That sweet scene frightened me. Would I be relieved of my duties? Would Elizabeth and Pearl abandon  their captain with a mother-daughter mutiny? Was I to be confronted with a natural and understandable coup?...I would not allow it. I put the tray down on the coffee table and snatched Elizabeth from Pearl. I gently laid the baby on a blanket on the floor and worked myself back to my feet, finally reaching eye level with Pearl. She smiled dimly, that smile I’d grown so sick of seeing. I hated the simple stare she gave as she watched me lavish her baby with my love…My slap had more heft than I intended. Really. It was a full and jealous swing..I should never have slapped Pearl…She was just a confused child. Bewildered by all that had happened to her, she trusted me, and I guess that’s why I slapped her. Pearl was counting on me to make things right, but I knew nothing about this situation would ever be right.” 

Letting Mary describe what happened here was really valuable. Even she seems surprised that she’s behaved so irrationally, so violently, to someone she thinks she loves. The reader knows that Mary is not really backed into a corner. The only other people in the room are a baby and a childlike young woman, but letting the reader inside Mary’s head, we see all that she thinks she has to lose. The slap is an act of desperation, and it is just one of many surprises this character reveals throughout the book. 

In Books Two and Three of the Series, Violet is Blue and House of Teeth, readers

get a chance to be with a little boy-turned young man named Jules Marks, another primary character who gets pushed to the brink more than once. He’s quiet, intelligent and has come to understand in spades just how cruel and kind the world can be. He’s been beat up plenty, but still fancies himself protector of those he loves. 

When Jules learns that his own father, the feckless Lem Hauser, was the one who put a tattoo on the lower belly of his only friend, Violet, he makes a move that seems out of character. He comes to the confrontation committed to a verbal spat, but his father’s cruel taunts push Jules to a new brink that turns physical: 

I hated him. I hated every last thing about him. 

“Now, Jules, I hate to tell you this, but I got there first, you know. I saw that before you ever did. I saw that before your little gal let me work on her. I saw that clean and white as a brand-new sheet, my boy.” 

He laughed some more, nearly choking on the dark tobacco juice sloshing around in his mouth. The childish, but powerful nature of his laugh stung. He wasn’t taking me seriously. I lunged for him. I caught him off guard, and we both tumbled to the ground. I could feel the dust on my teeth and the smell of his wet tobacco breath. My body was on top of him. I started swinging as hard as I could. His ballcap had fallen to the ground, so I could see his greasy black hair, slicked down with pure meanness. I landed some good punches and kept swinging until he stopped me and pushed me off him. The push was hard enough to knock down the burn barrel…The air between us bristled. Hungry dogs barked in the distance. My face throbbed… 

“Hey, Jules, you come back any time and wrestle with old Lem. Anytime, Sir.” 

Angry tears started to pool behind my eyes. I didn’t want them to drip down my face until I’d put more distance between us. They started falling anyway.

Writing this part of Jules’ story challenged me, not because I thought the attack on Lem wasn’t justified. After the willful neglect and cruelty that this character and his five little sisters have endured, he deserves to throw a punch and have it land. Lem’s involvement with Jules’ only friend, Violet, pushes an already distressed Jules over a very natural edge. Showing readers this break makes a character who is beyond heroic by any standards, more believable and layered. 

The layers matter to me as a writer. Making decisions about how and when and who will reveal new pockets of humanity in a story is my idea of a good time, but there’s more to it. Giving fictional characters room to grow and to be fully human has the potential to do work beyond the page, and I think that has more value in the long run. Is it possible that by reading and writing stories that lay bare more than one truth, we expand our capacity to extend similar considerations to the people who live and breathe around us? To this, I say yes, yes, yes. 

Jules Marks and his five little sisters can finally relax. Their feckless parents from Shakey's Half are doing time in the Paradise County Jail, and their Uncle Larry, Aunt Sally and Aunt Clarice have swooped in to give them the safety and security they deserved all along. As they settle into the closest thing to normal they’ve ever known, their neighbors and classmates are quick to remind them not to get too comfortable. Poulson’s only dentist makes a generous offer to help the Marks children fix their long-neglected teeth, but many folks object to the free treatment they receive. Meanwhile, Jules is figuring out how to be a man as he holds onto an ugly secret involving his dear friend, Violet Sellers. When cancer strikes the family, Jules decides to right a wrong that’s gone unchallenged for far too long.

You can purchase House of Teeth and the other books in The Women of Paradise County series on Amazon.

Coming February 1: Hooked by Caitlin Rother

 

You know Caitlin Rother as an investigative journalist and true crime expert who has brought you books that I've reviewed here (Death on Ocean Boulevard, Dead Reckoning, Body Parts, and Down to the Bone). Now, experience her fiction writing as she releases the first in her Katrina & Goode thriller series, Hooked. 

Returning from a recent surfing trip, homicide detective Ken Goode steps into a bar and sits down next to an attractive young woman named Katrina. Their getting-to-know-you conversation is promptly interrupted by a call, and Ken learns two bodies have been discovered at the affluent La Jolla Farms neighborhood. Vacation over.

The next time they meet,  Katrina Chopin has been assigned to report on Ken's case: the mysterious deaths of a well-known doctor and his daughter for the Sun-Dispatch. As they work this case, their attraction grows, and they quickly discover that powerful people don't want this case solved.

Hooked is a superb title for this thrilling and relentless pursuit through the city's underbelly, where wealth and power lead to murder. Rother's police procedural will have you turning page after page as Katrina and Goode deliver the story from their distinct points of view. Sharing a common past, these two are unexpectedly drawn together into a world where all is not as it seems. 

I can see a lot of Rother's riveting style from her true crime stories within the pages of Hooked. The main difference is that the reader must follow along with the investigation, watching it unfold piece by piece to an explosive conclusion, rather than knowing who the culprit is upfront. 

If you're looking for a high-stakes detective thriller with a hint of romance, order your copy of Hooked today!

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Thomas & Mercer
• Publication date ‏ : ‎ February 1, 2026
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Print length ‏ : ‎ 397 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1662532350
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1662532351

I received a copy of this from Amazon First Reads thanks to my Prime subscription. This review contains my honest opinions, which I have not been compensated for in any way.

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: New Books I Am Looking Forward to This Year

 

The Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge is hosted by Long and Short Reviews. They offer this blog hop as a weekly prompt to help you gain new friends and visitors. You don't have to participate every week, but if you decide to post and join the blog hop for a week, Long and Short Reviews asks that you share your link on their weekly post on their website (it will be the top post on the home page each Wednesday morning). The link list remains open for new links for 48 hours. Visit the other bloggers participating to see what they discuss that week. Comments are appreciated. 

Welcome to the official first Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge of 2026! Thanks for being here today. 

This time of year, there is talk about the new books we plan to read. Here are a few that caught my eye:

1. A Pair of Aces by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray
2. We the Women: The Hidden Heroes Who Shaped America by Norah O'Donnell with Kate Andersen Brower
3. Love on the Shelf by Sheila Roberts
4. The Bookshop of 99 Doors by Jamie Jo Wright
5. Have Yourself a Merry Little Meltdown by Sheila Roberts

Looking forward to checking out your blogs today. Thanks for reading!