On today's episode, we will chat with Jenn Bouchard, speaking with us from the Boston suburbs. Jenn has been teaching high school social studies for 23 years and is the parent of two teenagers. After completing a major volunteer position as the president of her college's alumni association in 2014, she had the out-of-the-blue idea to write a novel. Not having written anything fictitious since middle school, she had no idea what she was doing. Three years later, she had completed a draft of FIRST COURSE. After many edits and a few bumps and detours, it was ultimately published in 2021 by TouchPoint Press. From 2020-2022, five of her short stories were also published by literary magazines. Her second book PALMS ON THE CAPE only took six months to draft, as Jenn found a system of writing that works for her. It will be published this summer. She is getting ready to self-edit her third novel CONSIDERING US before passing it along to her trusted chief beta reader, one of her closest friends from growing up as a military brat. She plans to begin work on a fourth novel this spring.

Jenn is a member of the Women's Fiction Writers Association and Grub Street, a writing center in Boston. She is also a part of the Every Damn Day Writers and Bookish Road Trip Facebook groups, as well as the Author Collective, a small group of women writers who are dedicated to supporting each other in their writing careers. She has found being a part of the community of authors to be one of the biggest surprises of her life, as she never really thought about the friends she would make along the way. She is very grateful for them.

You can learn more about her on her website, jennbouchard.com and follow her on Instagram at @jennbouchardbos - which is the best place to learn about the upcoming publication of PALMS ON THE CAPE.

Get your copy of FIRST COURSE at your favorite bookseller or through links at https://linktr.ee/jennbouchard

A little about today's host-

Shawna Rodrigues left her award-winning career in the public sector in 2019 to consult and publish her first novel Beyond the Pear Blossoms. Her desire to connect and help others led to the launch of her podcast The Grit Show shortly thereafter. When she learned women host only 27% of podcasts, her skills and passion led to the founding of the Authentic Connections Network. She now helps mission-driven entrepreneurs better connect with their audiences by providing full-service podcast production and through a community for Entrepreneurs & Podcasters – EPAC. Podcasting is her primary focus, so she continues to support the writing community through this podcast, and her writing time is mostly focused on anthologies.

She offers a free 7 Steps to Perfect Your Podcast Title to anyone interested in launching a podcast. You can also follow her on Instagram-@ShawnaPodcasts, and learn more about the network and community at https://linktr.ee/37by27.

Be sure to follow or subscribe to Author Express wherever you listen to podcasts and to follow us on Instagram @AuthorExpressPodcast

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