This week, I talk with Sara Hamdan about her journey from finance and journalism into fiction, and how writing What Will People Think became a way to explore identity, belonging, family history, and the freedom to define yourself outside of expectations. Through conversations about comedy, Palestinian representation, women’s choices, historical memory, and the many forms of love, the episode explores how fiction can create connection and make complex experiences feel deeply human.

Listen to hear about:

• How moving from finance into journalism—and eventually fiction—helped her discover storytelling as both a craft and a way to explore her own family history and identity.
• Why stand-up comedy became central to the novel, including Sara’s real-life experience taking comedy classes to overcome public speaking anxiety and how humor can deliver difficult truths with softness.
• Code-switching, compartmentalizing identity, and the pressure many women feel to justify life choices—while emphasizing the importance of autonomy and becoming comfortable showing up as your full self.
• Fiction as a way to preserve cultural memory and show everyday life beyond headlines, using family stories, historical detail, and personal experiences to create empathy.

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Check out the Bookwild Community on Patreon

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Follow @imbookwild on Instagram

Other Co-hosts On Instagram:

Gare Billings @gareindeedreads

Steph Lauer @books.in.badgerland

Halley Sutton @halleysutton25

Brian Watson @readingwithbrian

MacKenzie Green @missusa2mba

This week, I talk with return guest Karen E. Osborne about her newest mystery Justice for Emerson!

Listen to hear about:

• How Karen approached a dual-timeline mystery that blends a present-day murder investigation with the long emotional aftermath of the Vietnam War, addiction, race, and trauma.
  
• How Karen’s research process is deeply people-centered—drawing from her husband’s Vietnam experiences, veterans, recovering addicts, and sensitivity readers to create emotionally authentic characters without judgment.
  
• How she crafted her protagonist: a widowed nonprofit CEO balancing grief, self-doubt, romance, family tension, and danger while unraveling a conspiracy.
  
• The way survival—through volunteering, recovery, or writing—gives meaning and accountability can help people endure trauma, addiction, and reinvention.
  
• Karen's approach to writing, creativity, discipline, and timing, and how small daily habits (like 15 minutes a day) can build a creative life.

Check Out Author Social Media Packages

Check out the Bookwild Community on Patreon

Check Out My Stories Are My Religion Substack

Get Bookwild Merch

Follow @imbookwild on Instagram

Other Co-hosts On Instagram:

Gare Billings @gareindeedreads

Steph Lauer @books.in.badgerland

Halley Sutton @halleysutton25

Brian Watson @readingwithbrian

MacKenzie Green @missusa2mba

This week, I talk with Aimee Poktwatka about her hew horror book Accumulation!

Listen to hear about:

• Aimee's unconventional path to becoming an author—from anthropology and veterinary work to creative writing—and how curiosity has shaped her storytelling.
  
• How Accumulation was inspired by Aimee’s real 18th-century home, a creepy doll her husband found in the yard, and her fascination with haunted house stories as metaphors for domestic life.
  
• How the novel blends haunted house horror, psychological suspense, and social commentary to examine motherhood, invisible labor, and the slow erosion of self.
  
• Aimee's “inefficient” writing process—heavy outlining followed by intuitive drafting—and how revision uncovers deeper emotional truths.
  
• Why horror, especially domestic and psychological horror, can uniquely explore trauma, gender roles, and the unsettling transformation of everyday spaces into something terrifying.

Check Out Author Social Media Packages

Check out the Bookwild Community on Patreon

Check Out My Stories Are My Religion Substack

Get Bookwild Merch

Follow @imbookwild on Instagram

Other Co-hosts On Instagram:

Gare Billings @gareindeedreads

Steph Lauer @books.in.badgerland

Halley Sutton @halleysutton25

Brian Watson @readingwithbrian

MacKenzie Green @missusa2mba