About Us

Book Pregnant is a group of debut authors who met via the internet and have been commiserating, cheering, consoling, cackling, and congratulating each other through this strange and unusual process of bringing a book from contract to publication and beyond. We are male, female, historical, literary, young adult, women's fiction, Southern, Californian, New Yorker, young and experienced writers. Our books are "due" beginning in January 2012 and spreading off into the wild future of 2013. Our common link is our need to shriek with joy, sob in woe, bounce, parade, and agonize over every step of delivering our "babies." This blog is our public point of connection, to share what we've learned and give you a look at what to expect when you're expecting... a novel.



Name: Amy Franklin-Willis
Title: The Lost Saints of Tennessee
Publisher: Grove/Atlantic
Due Date: Feb. 7, 2012

Amy Franklin-Willis was born in Birmingham, Alabama and is an eighth-generation Southerner. She received an Emerging Writer Grant from the Elizabeth George Foundation in 2007 to complete The Lost Saints of Tennessee, a novel inspired by stories of her father’s childhood in rural Pocahontas, Tennessee. The book is an Indie Next Pick for February. She currently lives with her family on the West Coast. This is her first novel. Find her on Facebook, Twitter and her website.

Name: Anita Hughes
Title: Monarch Beach
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Due Date: June 19, 2012

Anita Hughes' debut novel Monarch Beach will be released on June 19th, 2012 by St. Martin's Press. A second novel, Market Street, will be released in early 2013. Anita lives in Dana Point, California where she often interrupts her writing to watch the beautiful sunsets. She can be found on Facebook and Twitter and at her website: anitahughesbooks.com.


Name: Anne Clinard Barnhill
Title: At the Mercy of the Queen
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Due Date: January 3, 2012

Anne Clinard Barnhill has been writ­ing pro­fes­sion­ally since 1991 and has writ­ten hun­dreds of feature articles, theater and book reviews, and inter­views for a vari­ety of news­pa­pers and mag­a­zines. Besides writ­ing, she also enjoys teach­ing, con­duct­ing writ­ing work­shops, and facil­i­tat­ing sem­i­nars to enhance cre­ativ­ity. She loves spend­ing time with her three grown sons and their fam­i­lies. For fun, she and her hus­band of thirty years, Frank, take long walks and play bridge. In rare moments, they dance. She can be found on Facebook and on her web site.

Name: Barbara Claypole White
Title: The Unfinished Garden
Publication: Mira/Harlequin
Due Date: August 28, 2012

Barbara Claypole White's debut novel, The Unfinished Garden, is a love story about grief, OCD and dirt. Born in rural England, she lives in the North Carolina forest with her family and a ridiculously large garden. For the story behind her fascination with OCD, visit her website www.barbaraclaypolewhite.com or chat with her on Facebook.


Name: Brenda Bevan Remmes
Title: Miss Ellie's Cafe

Brenda Remmes draws from her thirty-eight years as a member of a Quaker Community to write the novel of a small southern town caught in the complicated history of race, religion and cotton plantations. Brenda lives with her husband along the Black River Swamp with relatives, both alive and dead, who have lived in the same homes and walked similar paths. Leaving North Carolina after thirty-six years, she’s finally returned home. She can be found on her web site and Facebook, as well as on her two blogs, The Quaker Cafe and Everything Happens at the Crossroads.


Name: Ellen Marie Wiseman
Title: The Plum Tree
Publisher: Kensington
Due Date: January 2013

Ellen Marie Wiseman discovered her love of reading and writing while attending first grade in one of the last one-room schoolhouses in NYS. Her debut novel The Plum Tree - a WWII story about a young German woman trying to save the love of her life, a Jewish man - will be released by Kensington in January 2013. Ellen lives peacefully on the shores of Lake Ontario with her husband and three dogs, where she loves to cook, watch movies, garden, and spend time with her granddaughters. She would love to have you join her on Facebook, Twitter, and on her web site.

Name: Jessica Keener
Title: Night Swim
Publisher: Fiction Studio
Due Date: January 10, 2012

Jessica Keener's writing career was launched when her story, "Recovery" won second prize in Redbook magazine's fiction contest. Her work has since been recognized in The Pushcart Prize under "Outstanding Writers," and has appeared in scores of publications, most recently in Connotation Press: An Online Artifact, Huffington Post and The Nervous Breakdown. She is the recipient of a Massachusetts Cultural Council Artist's Grant and was a finalist in Breadloaf's Bakeless novel competition. Her debut novel, Night Swim, has been widely praised by reviewers and book bloggers including The New York Times, which called Night Swim "an earnest debut" and "moving." The Boston Globe said "Keener perfectly captures a certain kind of 1970s adolescence," and Booklist, said "this memorable debut will strike a universal chord with readers." Visit her on her web site.


Name: Julie Kibler
Title: Calling Me Home
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Due Date: February 19, 2013

Julie Kibler's debut novel, Calling Me Home, will be published by St. Martin's Press. Besides reading and writing, she enjoys indie films, folk music, photography and splitting chocolatey desserts with her husband, an engineer who doesn't understand writers, but understands chocolate. She lives in Texas with her family and a couple of crazy shelter dogs. (websiteWhat Women Write blogFacebookTwitter)

Name: Lydia Netzer
Title: Shine Shine Shine
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Due Date: July 17, 2012

Lydia Netzer's debut novel, Shine Shine Shine, was published in July 2012 by St. Martin's Press. It was a New York Times Sunday Book Review Editor's Choice, the Amazon Spotlight Book for July, an IndieNext Pick, a People Magazine "People's Pick" and was featured as a staff pick in many awesome indie bookstores. She lives in Virginia with her family, where she homeschools, plays in a rock band, and eats the garnish. She can also be found on Twitter and Facebook.



Name: Nancy Bilyeau
Title: The Crown
Publisher: Touchstone/Simon&Schuster
Due Date: Jan. 10, 2012 in North American and Feb. 2, 2012 in the UK

Nancy Bilyeau is a writer and magazine editor who has worked on the staffs of InStyle, Rolling Stone, and Ladies’ Home Journal. Her debut novel, The Crown, is set in Tudor England. It took her five years to research and write her historical thriller before selling it in an auction to Touchstone/Simon&Schuster. She was born in Chicago and grew up in Michigan. Now she lives in New York City with her husband and two children and heads to The Cloisters at the Metropolitan Museum of Art whenever humanly possible. Find her on Twitter, Facebook, and her web site.


Name: Robert Lewis
Title: Unknown Damage
Publisher: Midnight Ink
Due Date: Spring 2013

Before Robert Lewis turned to writing crime fiction, he was a painter, printmaker, and a produced screenwriter. Some of his older stories can still be found (in the archives) at www.cherrybleeds.com and www.pindeldyboz.com. The first Mark Mallen thriller novel, Unknown Damage, will arrive on bookshelves Spring 2013 via Midnight Ink. Robert is represented by Barbara Poelle of The Irene Goodman Literary Agency in New York City


Name: Sophie Perinot
Title: The Sister Queens
Publisher: NAL (Penguin)
Due Date: March 6, 2012

Sophie Perinot writes historical fiction. In March 2012 her debut book-baby—a tale of two sisters who also happen to be 13th Century Queens—will be delivered by NAL (New American Library).  When she is not lurking in the past, Sophie lives in Great Falls, Virginia with her husband, three children and two cats.  She is active among the literary Twitterati, and you can follow her here as well as on Facebook. For more on Sophie and the upcoming release of her book, The Sister Queens, please check out her website




Name: Wiley Cash
Title: A Land More Kind Than Home
Publisher: William Morrow
Due Date: April 17, 2012

Wiley Cash is from western North Carolina. He has a Ph.D. in English from the University of Louisiana-Lafayette and teaches English at Bethany College. He lives with his wife in West Virginia. This is his first novel. He can also be found on Facebook and Twitter and on his website.




Name: Mindy McGinnis
Title: Not A Drop to Drink
Publisher: Katherine Tegen / Harper Collins
Due Date: Fall 2013

Mindy McGinnis is a YA librarian and author from Ohio. She has a BA from Otterbein College in English Literature. Mindy contributes to the group blog From the Write Angle, and is a member of The Lucky 13's, a group of YA authors debuting in 2013. Mindy also serves the writing community at AgentQueryConnect as a moderator, blogs at Writer, Writer Pants on Fire and Tweets.

UntitledName: Sam Thomas
Title: The Midwife's Tale: A Mystery
Publisher: Minotaur/St. Martins
Due Date: January, 2013

Sam Thomas has a PhD in history with a focus on Reformation England and recently leaped from the tenure track into a teaching position at a secondary school near Cleveland, Ohio. You can learn more about the real-life midwife behind The Midwife's Tale at www.scthomas.com, or link up on Facebook and Twitter.


Name: Amy Sue Nathan
Title: The Glass Wives
Publisher: St. Martins
Due Date: 2013

Amy Sue Nathan's debut novel, The Glass Wives, will be published by St. Martin's Press in 2013. In 2011, Amy launched Women's Fiction Writers, a blog dedicated to the authors, business and craft of traditionally published women's fiction. A Philly ex-pat near Chicago, Amy is the mom of a son in college, a daughter in high school, and two rambunctious, rescued dogs.




Name: David Abrams
Title: Fobbit
Publisher: Grove/Atlantic
Due Date: September 2012

David Abrams' debut novel, Fobbit, will be published by Grove/Atlantic in September. He served 20 years in the Army and was deployed to Iraq in 2005. While in the combat zone, he kept a daily journal which later formed the blueprint for the novel about a public affairs soldier who spends the majority of his tour of duty in the safety of the Forward Operating Base (or, FOB). In addition to working on another novel (about a midget stuntman in 1940s Hollywood) and writing short stories, David blogs about books and publishing at The Quivering Pen. Find him on Facebook, Twitter, and his website.

Name: Priscille Marcille Sibley
Title: The Promise of Stardust
Publisher: William Morrow
Due Date: Early 2013

Priscille Marcille Sibley’s novel The Promise of Stardust is due in early 2013. In her “real” life she is a neonatal intensive care nurse, and she has the privilege of caring for infants so small that they fit in her hand. In her fictional life, she sits with her laptop and writes. She lives with her husband, three tall teenaged sons, and their Wheaton terrier. Join her on Twitter and on her web site, www.priscillesibley.com.

Name: Melanie Thorne
Title: Hand Me Down
Publisher: Dutton (Penguin)
Due Date: April 12, 2012

Melanie Thorne earned her MA in Creative Writing from UC Davis, where she was awarded the Alva Englund Fellowship and the Maurice Prize in Fiction. Her debut novel, Hand Me Down, about two sisters navigating the dangerous consequences of their parents’ mistakes, will be published by Dutton in April. She lives in Northern California, and can be found online at melaniethorne.com and on Facebook and Twitter.

Name: Seré Prince Halverson
Title: The Underside of Joy
Publisher: Dutton (Penguin)
Due Date: January 12, 2012

Seré Prince Halverson lives in Northern California and worked as a freelance copywriter and creative director for twenty years while she wrote fiction. She and her husband have four grown children. The Underside of Joy is her debut novel. Find her on facebook, her website and her blog, Who Moved My Buddha.

Name: Erin Cashman
Title: The Exceptionals
Publisher: Holiday House
Due Date: February 2012

Erin Cashman has been writing for as long as she can remember; in grade school usually from her perch near the top of her maple tree. She is a graduate of Bates College and Boston College Law School. With three kids and a career as an attorney, she often wrote late at night, or in stolen hours here and there. She lives in Massachusetts with her husband, children, and their very hyper dog. Her debut novel, a YA fantasy entitled The Exceptionals, was published in February by Holiday House. Meet up with her on Facebook and at her web site.