New author Alys Murray joins us today to talk about her first book, The Christmas Company, released by Hallmark Publishing in October 2018.

Alys shares her journey from finding Hallmark's call for unagented writers to submitting her manuscript to finding an agent to selling two more books - all in short order. Quite the exciting journey! Since she found both Hallmark's call and her agent via Twitter, I also asked her to explain a little about #PitchWars. ;-)

Alys is a playwright, too, and we talked about the differences in media as well as the difference between the type of writing expected in grad school and finding your own writer's voice in genre fiction. Interesting stuff!

She was also a guest on Hallmark's "Home & Family" TV show, and tells us all about the fun of being interviewed - and cooking! - on a TV show. :-D

You can find The Christmas Company at Hallmark Publishing, select Hallmark stores, all of the usual online sites, as well as Target stores, some Walmart stores, and some Meijer stores. You can follow Alys at WriterAlys on Twitter and Instagram, AlysMurrayAuthor on Facebook, and on her website AlysMurray.com.