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Author Update: Paula Paul

Paula Paul is the award-winning author of over thirty novels including historical fiction, contemporary women’s fiction, and the Alexandra Gladstone mystery series. Her latest fiction release, The Last of the Baileys (March 2023), was inspired by her mother’s colorful family and the boarding house they ran. Look for Paula on her website PaulaPaul.net and on Facebook. You’ll find many of her books on her main Amazon author page, but The Last of the Baileys is available on Amazon here. Read more about Paula and her work in the 2016 interview for SouthWest Writers.


Please tell us about The Last of the Baileys, who are your main characters and where does the story take place?
The Last of the Baileys is set in a small town in West Texas called Anton, where my mother grew up, and in Lubbock, Texas, the largest city in the area. Trudy Bailey Walters is the main character, along with Adam Bailey who claims to be the descendant of a Bailey family slave.

Is Trudy Bailey Walters based on an actual person, or an amalgamation of people?
Trudy is an amalgamation of two of my great aunts who were the daughters of John and Julia Bailey, my great grandparents, who built and ran the boarding house in Anton where most of the story takes place.

What was the inspiration for The Last of the Baileys?
The inspiration for the story came from my memories of the old boarding house and of my mother’s colorful family, the Baileys. I brought Marta Romandino, an undocumented woman, into the story because of my interest in the plight of immigrants coming to the U.S.

How is this book different from your previous novels?
This book is different from my earlier books because it is not genre fiction. I have written mysteries and romance novels as well as children’s books. I have long wanted to write general fiction, however, and The Last of the Baileys is one of my attempts at doing that.

Of all the books you’ve written, were there any that posed more challenges than others?
As for the most challenging books I have written, the general fiction or literary fiction books have been more challenging than genre fiction because the plot is not so predictable. Also, I have tried, over the years, to add more depth to characters and to develop a better writing style. Both of those endeavors are challenging.

With so many books under your belt, do you ever find yourself struggling to flesh out a story idea? If yes, can you give us an example of how you moved past it?
I often have trouble fleshing out a story idea. I have begun to think that is just part of every project. When I get what seems to be hopelessly stuck, it is always because I don’t know the characters well enough. The solution is to have what I call a conversation with the character. I do that by asking the character a lot of questions. It usually starts out with something like, “Why won’t you let me move this story along?” The answer is almost always something like, “Let me tell you about myself so you will understand me better.” Then I just let the character talk about anything including childhood, fears, love life, bad habits, family—anything that comes to mind. I fill up several typewritten pages this way, and while some of it has nothing to do with the story, I don’t censor myself. When all that is done, I usually have what I need to move the story forward. Sometimes that means changing the plot.

As a seasoned author, do you still belong to writing groups or have partnerships to help culture an idea? What are your thoughts on critique groups?
The only writing group I currently belong to is the First Friday group that was started years ago by Lois Duncan and Tony Hillerman. It is for published writers, but many in the group are no longer writing regularly. I have belonged to critique groups in the past, and I got a lot of help and inspiration from them. I haven’t belonged to one in several years because it had gotten to the point that I felt I was teaching writing when I went and wasn’t getting the help I needed. I would love to find a group of widely published working writers.

Knowing what you know now, what would you do differently if you started your writing career today?
I would hate to have to start a writing career today because it is so much harder to get published than it was when I started. However, I think I would just do the same thing I did way back then. That is, I would read books that are like what I want to write. I would read how-to books and magazines. I would attend conferences and talk to other writers, editors, and agents. I would just not give up.

What is it that many beginning writers misunderstand about telling a story?
Beginning writers of fiction often don’t understand how intricately character growth and plot are related.

What marketing techniques have been most beneficial to you?
Marketing techniques are tricky in my view. I have tried buying advertising, being on talk shows, talking to various groups to promote my books, and having book signings. They all help to some extent, but I think a writer really needs a publishing house with money for promotion and we don’t all have that. It’s mostly just the top sellers who can take advantage of that these days. I have had the most success with marketing by hiring someone who specializes in marketing and knows where to place the ads. Regrettably, that can be quite expensive.

What’s next on your radar for writing projects?
My new writing project is a family saga. It is proving to be challenging.

Is there anything else you’d like readers to know?
As for anything else I would like writers to know, it is to think about the question on a paperweight my daughter gave me years ago. That is: What would you attempt to do if you knew you could not fail?


Su Lierz writes dark fiction, short story fiction, and personal essays. Her short story “Twelve Days in April,” written under the pen name Laney Payne, appeared in the 2018 SouthWest Writers Sage Anthology. Su was a finalist in the 2017 and 2018 Albuquerque Museum Authors Festival Writing Contest. She lives in Corrales, New Mexico, with her husband Dennis.




2023 New Releases for SWW Authors #4

Jane M. Bardal, Mark Fleisher, Sue Houser, Paula Paul, and Cassie Sanchez represent the diverse membership of SouthWest Writers (SWW) with 2023 releases in the genres of biography, poetry, middle grade fiction, contemporary fiction, and fantasy, respectively. Their releases couldn’t fit in this year’s interview schedule, but look for new interviews or updates for most of these authors in 2024.

A list of interviewed SWW authors with 2023 releases is included at the end of this post.


Colorado’s Mrs. Captain Ellen Jack: Mining Queen of the Rockies (The History Press, May 2023) by Jane M. Bardal. “You get off this property.” In 1887, Captain Ellen E. Jack backed up her orders with a shotgun as she stood at the entrance to her Black Queen Mine. To profit from the mine, she engaged in many other battles with lawyers and capitalists who tried to wrest her ore away. Mrs. Captain Jack contributed to the myth of the West by crowning herself the Mining Queen of the Rockies as she entertained tourists at her roadhouse near Colorado Springs. This is a captivating biography of a pioneering woman who fashioned a legacy through true tenacity and maybe even a few tall tales.

Colorado’s Mrs. Captain Ellen Jack is available on Amazon.


Knowing When: Poems (Mercury HeartLink, March 2023) by Mark Fleisher. Under the mantle of its intriguing title, Mark Fleisher writes of sadness and tragedy, lightens the mood with poems about love, nature, even baseball, as well as a mirthful look at technology. Fleisher’s blend of narrative and lyric styles cut to the heart of the matter, showing the ability to speak volumes in a minimum number of lines. His eclectic collection also invites the reader to contemplate questions posed in the title poem and other selections.

You’ll find Knowing When: Poems and more of Mark’s poetry on his Amazon author page.


Walter Steps Up to the Plate (Kinkajou Press, October 2023) by Sue Houser. Walter will do anything to help his mother when she’ s diagnosed with tuberculosis, but does that include standing up to Al Capone? Twelve-year-old Walter wants to spend the summer of 1927 watching his beloved Chicago Cubs play baseball. Instead, Walter must leave everything he knows and loves to accompany his mother to Albuquerque, New Mexico — a place he has never been to with relatives he has never met. To help with expenses, Walter gets a paper route. But the situation gets worse when his mother is admitted to a sanatorium and needs expensive surgery. A chance encounter with the gangster, Al “ Scarface” Capone might change his mother’ s fortunes and get her the surgery she needs. But to do it, Walter will become indebted to the notorious gangster.

Look for Sue at SueHouser.com and on her Amazon author page.


The Last of the Baileys (March 2023) by Paula Paul. Trudy Bailey Walters, who is in her 70s, thinks the old house she just bought for back taxes might be haunted. Adam Bailey, who Trudy has known since childhood, says he will help Trudy find the source of the “haunting,” but he doesn’t want Trudy to know the truth. Although Trudy has no intention of taking in boarders, she soon finds several people living with her, including a young mother with a rebellious teenager and an undocumented immigrant who is searching for her child. While they all look for the source of the haunting, Adam convinces them to help find the missing child, including a reluctant Trudy. Illegal escapades, unexpected friendships, and startling conclusions ensue.

You’ll find Paula on her website at PaulaPaul.net and The Last of the Baileys on Amazon. Many of her other novels are available on her Amazon author page.


Conquering the Darkness: The Darkness Trilogy – 3 (December 2023) by Cassie Sanchez. Ultimate victory is won within the battlefield of the soul. Without his magic or his memories, Jasce Farone finds himself in the frozen realm of Balten, suffering the lingering wounds from his last battle and haunted by a woman he can’t recall. He tries to be the man everyone expects him to be—the one they remember—but the spindly fingers of revenge wrap around his heart while a past he’s never confronted escorts him further into darkness. In his journey, Jasce will need to trust those who fight by his side while battling the demons within if he wants to preserve magic and prevent tyranny from spreading throughout the land. If he succeeds, then a chance at love and peace is within his grasp.

Visit Cassie on her website at CassieSanchez.com, on Facebook, and her Amazon author page.


SWW Author Interviews: 2023 Releases

Marty Eberhardt
Bones in the Back Forty

William Fisher
The Price of the Sky: A Tale of Bandits, Bootleggers, and Barnstormers

Patricia Gable
The Right Choice

Cornelia Gamlem
The Decisive Manager: Get Results, Build Morale, and Be the Boss Your People Deserve

Joyce Hertzoff
Train to Nowhere Somewhere: Book 1 of the More Than Just Survival Series

Brian House
Reich Stop

T.E. MacArthur
The Skin Thief

Nick Pappas
Crosses of Iron: The Tragic Story of Dawson, New Mexico, and its Twin Mining Disasters

Marcia Rosen
Murder at the Zoo

Lynne Sebastian
One Last Cowboy Song

JR Seeger
The Enigma of Treason

Suzanne Stauffer
Fried Chicken Castañeda

Jodi Lea Stewart
The Gold Rose

Patricia Walkow
Life Lessons from the Color Yellow

R. Janet Walraven
LIAM: The Boy Who Saw the World Upside Down

Donald Willerton
Death in the Tallgrass

Linda Wilson
Waddles the Duck and
Cradle in the Wild: A Book for Nature Lovers Everywhere




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