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Sarah's Bookshelves Live

Ep. 64: Catherine Adel West (Author of Saving Ruby King) + Book Recommendations

Sarah's Bookshelves Live

Sarah Dickinson

Bookrecommendations, Bookpodcasts, Sarahsbookshelvespodcast, Sarahsbookshelveslivepodcast, Sarahsbookshelveslive, Bookpodcast, Literarypodcast, Whatshouldiread, Arts, Bookreviewpodcast, Reading, Readingpodcast, Books, Sarahsbookshelves

4.9 • 732 Ratings

🗓️ 19 August 2020

⏱️ 55 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Catherine Adel West (author of Saving Ruby King) talks about how she found her agent, the strong women of Saving Ruby King, and how she decided to make the church a narrator.

This post contains affiliate links, through which I make a small commission when you make a purchase (at no cost to you!).

Highlights

  • How different her first draft was from the final book.
  • The story of how she found an agent (via a Twitter contest for marginalized writers!) and Saving Ruby King was bought by a publisher.
  • The exact tweet she used to pitch Saving Ruby King in the Twitter contest.
  • Her advice to querying writers.
  • Saving Ruby King‘s original title and Ruby’s original name.
  • The message Catherine wanted to share about the strengths and struggles of black women through her story and her characters.
  • What growing up on the South Side of Chicago was like for Catherine.
  • How she decided to make the church a narrator.
  • How her own relationship with her faith and church shaped the book.
  • Her Dad’s (he’s a pastor and the character of Jackson Potter is based on him) reaction to the book.
  • The prequel to Saving Ruby King that Catherine is currently working on…and the possibility of this being a 4 book series.
  • How Catherine got Leesa Cross-Smith to blurb Saving Ruby King.
  • A bit about the lack of diversity in the publishing industry and the #publishingpaidme hashtag.

Catherine’s Book Recommendations [31:30]

Two OLD Books She Loves

Two NEW Books She Loves

One Book She DIDN’T LOVE

One NEW RELEASE She’s Excited About

Last 5 Star Book Catherine Read [48:47]

Other Books Mentioned

Other Links

About Catherine

Website | Instagram | Twitter

Catherine graduated with both her BA and MA in journalism from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Her work has been published in Gay Magazine, Black Fox Literary Magazine, Five2One, Better Than Starbucks, and others. Catherine was born and raised in Chicago. Saving Ruby King is her debut novel.

Next Episode

There will not be a new episode next week since the podcast is on a bi-weekly schedule.

The following week will be the Fall 2020 Book Preview episode with Catherine from Gilmore Guide to Books (airing September 2).

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Welcome to Sarah's Bookshelves Live. I'm Sarah of the blog Sarah's Bookshelves. Each week I'm

0:15.5

talking with one bookish guest about two old books they love, two new books they love, one book they don't love, and one new

0:22.7

release they're excited about. We're going to get real and sometimes a bit snarky about all things

0:28.3

books. If you like the show, I'd really love your support. Spread the word to your reader friends,

0:33.8

subscribe to the show, rate and review it wherever you listen to podcasts, or get bonus podcast episodes

0:40.8

by supporting the podcast on Patreon. There's a link in the show notes and in my Instagram bio to my

0:47.5

Patreon page. Let's get rolling. Hey everyone, welcome to a full-length episode of Sarah's Bookshelves Live.

0:55.5

I know it's been a while since I've been on the air and been able to talk to y'all, and I am thrilled to be back after a

1:00.7

couple weeks off. Actually, it was more than a couple weeks, maybe a month or so. And while I would

1:05.5

love to tell you, it was rejuvenating. It was probably a little bit less than rejuvenating from a personal standpoint.

1:12.5

We just had a lot going on at home. And I was thankful that I was able to take a break from the

1:17.4

podcast for that reason. But it was really rejuvenating in the sense of I've had time to think

1:23.4

and plan for what the podcast is going to look like. And I am really glad to be rolling again.

1:30.1

And I couldn't have a better guest to start back with Catherine Adele West, who is the author of

1:35.7

the debut novel Saving Ruby King, is joining me today. Saving Ruby King came out in June, and I

1:42.0

absolutely loved it. It's one of the best books I've read

1:45.1

this year so far, and it's still stuck in my head, even though I read it well over a month ago.

1:51.4

Catherine was born and raised in Chicago, where she still lives. She graduated with both

1:55.4

her bachelor's and masters of science and journalism from the University of Illinois at Urbana.

2:00.8

Her work is published in Black Fox Literary Magazine, 5 to 1,000. of Science and Journalism from the University of Illinois at Urbana.

2:05.9

Her work is published in Black Fox Literary Magazine, 5 to 1, better than Starbucks.

2:07.1

That's a great name, by the way.

...

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