Community building: Meet our giveaway winners!

Meet the writer-readers who have won titles in our recent giveaways and learn what they are up to with their own writing. Plus, an important call you might want to join.

Hello and welcome to the almost weekend, which we absolutely deserve.

I have many thoughts about the election. Lots of dread and heaviness on top of burning rage. But I’m not a “hot-take” writer—rather, I’m someone who needs to sit with my feelings and distill them, so I’m not going to write a preamble about the election results today. Instead, I’m going to say that we need community more than ever, and we need our art. To that end, I think many of you will enjoy an incredible call I took place in yesterday organized by WeAreWorthFightingFor.Org where dozens of community leaders (MoveOn.org, Working Families Party, Indivisible…) and other organizations who have been fighting hate with organized, strategic resistance weighed in on democracy-protecting measures we can take before inauguration and beyond. It was a marvelous call—an uplifting call—and also an incredibly sensible, rational and calm one. It’s truly worth setting aside time this weekend to watch the video of the call after the fact. 140,000 people called in to watch it, live!

Watch the video and share widely—it’s incredibly uplifting and kind.

Community is where it’s going to be at in the coming years, and aren’t we lucky to be growing a meaningful, connected community here? Accordingly, I want to introduce you to some of our community members today.

If you’ve been with us for a while, you know we run a lot of book giveaways here, especially the books of authors featured at Craft from the Couch.

Once we have a nice selection of giveaway winners, I like to round them up and introduce you to them. We have such an excellent community of passionate readers and writers at Before and After the Book Deal—it’s fun to meet each other! Remember to follow and/or subscribe to these writers’ Substacks so they—and you—can keep growing your networks of like-minded literati.

Without further ado, let’s meet our latest batch of winners:

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Meet Kate Webb won BIRD MILK + MOSQUITO BONES by

Priyanka Mattoo

Kate Webb

Kate Webb

is a creative nonfiction writer and a serious, sensitive, devoted reader of books. She was raised Mormon and left that religion in 2018. Finally free from the high-demands of Mormonism, she dove head-long into her long neglected passion, which is reading books (ALL the books!) and discussing the ideas, perspectives, and insights with others.

She writes a book review newsletter called “Read, Think, Share: Repeat!” where she tells the story about the story: how she found the book, all about the reading experience, and any life-changing insights. Learn more at katewebbwrites.com.

Kate was raised in Georgia, earned a BS in English from BYU-Idaho, and lives with her husband, 3 kids, and 2 corgis in southeast Idaho. 

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Say hello to Dannie Lynn Fountain won my second novel, TOUCH

Dannie Lynn Fountain

is the epitome of a side hustler, holding concurrent roles at Google as a Disability Accommodations Program Manager, at Intuit Turbotax as a Seasonal Tax Manager, at General Assembly as a Career Coach, and at Row House as a Group Fitness Coach. When not working in any of those roles, she also supports clients and brands with HR-focused equity and accessibility strategies. Dannie Lynn is an Enrolled Agent and a member of the NAEA Board of Directors. She has bylines in the New York Times, Harvard Business Review, Forbes, Business Insider, and more. Finally, she is a seven-time published author. Her latest book “Keep Your Day Job” focuses on leveraging your side hustle to grow your corporate career and is available everywhere you buy books.

View this Bookshop storefront Courtney has with books published by writers who follow her Substack!

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Say hi to Andrea Cavedo! also won my second novel, TOUCH

Andrea Cavedo

has been a high school history and government teacher in and around Chicago for the last decade, and was previously a public affairs consultant and lobbyist. She started teaching part time last year to focus more on writing (and a new baby, who somehow just turned one) and has since had pieces published in HerStry and Orca. She is querying her first novel about how a woman’s collegiate coming-of-age period is questioned when a politician wants to apologize for wronging her. Andrea is on Instagram and (reluctantly) Twitter as @mrscavedowrites

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Meet Katie Trexler McLean won IF WE WERE VILLAINS by

M. L. Rio

Katie Trexler McLean

is a life-long storyteller. She began writing fictitious newscasts at age six and was crafting poetry around the age of 12. Katie turned her love of writing, creative spirit, and inquisitive mind into a successful career in broadcast journalism where she thrived for more than 15 years, earning a prestigious Emmy award along the way. Like many working moms she wanted more flexibility to raise her boy/girl twins, so she left the anchor desk and shifted her professional talents to the world of public relations and communications. She still works in that industry and is honored to have the privilege to help individuals and companies share their stories with the world. Katie is currently completing her first book, a memoir about her personal journey through career, motherhood and trying to maintain her sense of self through it all. She hopes her writing will encourage more women, men and couples to talk about the choices and sacrifices we all make for the people we love.

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Say hi to Amie Pascal won LEAVING ISN’T THE HARDEST THING by

Lauren Hough

Amie P.

is an artist and writer living in the Pacific Northwest. She is the co-author of the independently published children’s book “The Wonderful World of Creatures & Code” born from a wildly successful Kickstarter project. Pascal, ever the weird auntie who gifts books for birthdays, channeled her childhood passion for reading into an MA in Comparative Literature and graduate teaching certificate in Composition. She is currently writing a middle-reader series about two sisters and works on a spooky short story collection when the ghosts in her old house inspire her. Follow her at www.amiepascal.com IG: @amieisfriend

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It’s very nice to meet you all! I hope you like the books you won.

We have a new giveaway just around the bend featuring author Isle McElroy and their incredible second novel, PEOPLE COLLIDE. To be eligible for our giveaways, you need to be a resident of the continental United States and a paid subscriber. Upgrade to participate in the next round, if you’d like.

In the comments, let us know what books you are disappearing inside of this weekend, or turning to to get you through?

And thanks, as always, for being here. I’m happy to be with you.

Courtney