319: Kristin Owens - Author of Elizabeth Sails

Our guest this week is Kristin Owens (Elizabeth Sails, Rising Action Publishing, October 2024). We discuss how Kristin's critique group convinced her to write a novel instead of short fiction, how a trip on the Queen Mary inspired her setting, and how she learned to stop being kind to her main character and to get tough instead. Then we discuss how she's paired with cruise lines like Cunard to market her book, spending six months last year on ships where she lectures about the publishing industry and teaches classes.     Kristin Owens holds a Ph.D. in higher education and is an award-winning faculty member with over 25 years university experience. Now a full-time writer in sticky southwest Florida, Kristin has over 100 bylines with celebrated magazines such as Wine Enthusiast, Writer's Digest, and 5280. Her personal essays have won Honorable Mention for the New Millennium Writing Awards, awarded finalist for the New Letters' award in nonfiction, and included in RISE! Colorado's Book of the Year. Her debut novel, Elizabeth Sails, was shortlisted for The Gilda Prize and Killer Nashville's Silver Falchion Award for Best Cozy. With her background in instructional design, she takes complex subjects and breaks them down into entertaining bite-sized pieces. Her high-energy presentations motivate writers to stick with it.   To learn more about Kristin, go to her website https://www.kristin-owens.com/