Ep53: “Original Sound,” award-winning actor and director Greg Jbara’s new film, will be in theaters April 24. Learn all about the movie, and Greg’s superstar career, on today’s interview with our host, award-winning novelist Jeffrey James Higgins

Meet the Author: Chandrani Ghosh is a former journalist (Time, Forbes, and Business Standard) who, many years ago, traded her press pass for a carpool one. Now that the carpoolers are drivers, she returns to the page. Drawing on her experiences of growing up in the chaotic worlds of Kolkata and Delhi, spending her twenties in London, Geneva, and Kathmandu, and eventually settling in Washington, Ghosh makes her literary debut with Heartlines. Learn more: cghosh.com About Heartlines: Sharmila Basu hasClick here to listen to the podcast!

Meet the Author: Daniel Grace is a London-born, California-bred, former owner of an international advertising agency who produces critically acclaimed Tuscan wines at his family winery, Il Molino di Grace, in Panzano-in-Chianti, Italy. He is a storyteller by trade and a mythologist at heart. Daniel splits his time between San Francisco and Tuscany with his wife, three daughters and English Setter. In the Wake of Golgotha is his debut novel. For more, visit danielmarkgrace.com About In the Wake of Golgotha: There isClick here to listen to the podcast!

Hello friends! If you missed the book launch party at Elaine’s Literary Salon on April 2, listen and watch the impressive interview between Jeff and award-winning noir author Christopher Chambers, ChrisChamberNoir.com. Help us celebrate the release of book 4 in the 4-part Nathan Burke series. “I wanted to write a story about what happens when devotion and duty collide, giving my protagonist — FBI Agent Nathan Burke — a heart-pounding challenge to uncover a global conspiracy to save his wife,Click here to listen to the podcast!

Meet the Author: Dr. Joan Naidorf is a board-certified emergency physician trained at the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine and Einstein Medical Center Philadelphia. After growing up in Highland Park, NJ, she obtained her undergraduate degree at the University of Virginia. She practiced for nearly thirty years in the busy emergency departments of Inova Alexandria Hospital and Fort Belvoir Community Hospital in Virginia. As an author and speaker, she has been sharing important ideas with students, residents and practicing physicians throughClick here to listen to the podcast!

About Bonnie Naradzay: As a mother, professional, teacher, and longtime volunteer, leading poetry sessions in prisons, a retirement community, and among the homeless, Bonnie has gathered much of both the lost and found, culminating in the publication of Invited to the Feast, a collection of poems and literary debut coming in her eightieth year. Her poems appear in AGNI, New Letters (Pushcart Nomination), RHINO, Kenyon Review online, Tampa Review, Florida Review online, EPOCH, Pinch (Pushcart Nomination), American Journal of Poetry,Click here to listen to the podcast!

Meet the Author: Elizabeth Bruce’s collection, Universally Adored and Other One Dollar Stories (Vine Leaves Press, 2024), won the 2025 IBA Short Story Award and Literary Titan Gold Award in Fiction, as well as an IAN Book of the Year Finalist distinction. Her debut novel, And Silent Left the Place, won Washington Writers’ Publishing House’s Fiction Prize, as well as a ForeWord Magazine Bronze Prize and the Texas Institute of Letters’ Finalist Award. She’s published in the USA, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand,Click here to listen to the podcast!

Click here to sign up today for the March 21 workshop with John DeDakis! Course Description: A series of topic-specific workshops designed to drill deeper into the finer points of storytelling. Writing exercises will help you hone your skills and give you the confidence to take your writing to the next level. Deep Listening for Writers: A writer is an observer first, last, and always. This session is an invitation to consider every interaction as an opportunity to follow one’sClick here to listen to the podcast!

When: Sunday, April 26, 2026 from 12-3pm Where: 208 Queen Street, Alexandria, Virginia 22314 Get your free ticket: RebeccaMorrison.eventbrite.com Meet the Author: Rebecca Morrison is the author of The Blue Dress, a novel based on her childhood as an Iranian immigrant trying to fit into her new American homeland and her family’s expectations of beauty. Published by Macmillan’s imprint Farrar, Straus and Giroux, the book will be available for purchase on March 24. The book has already received positive reviews fromClick here to listen to the podcast!

When: Saturday, May 02, 2026 from 12-3pm Where: 208 Queen Street, Alexandria, Virginia 22314 Sign up for your free ticket on Eventbrite: IreneBennett.Eventbrite.com Meet the Author: Irene Vinyard Bennett has wide experience as a writer and educational minister. Her debut novel, BATTLE OF THE ARTISANS: Making the Bells of Marquis Yi, won the International Proverse Prize of 2022.  It is the first story about the Bronze-Age Bells of Marquis Yi, a National Treasure of China. An international motivational speaker, workshopClick here to listen to the podcast!

Meet the Author: Emil Buchman was born in the Galaxy Far, Far Away (aka, Baku, Azerbaijan) and came to the United States in the early 1990s. Currently, he lives in Brooklyn, New York with his beautiful wife and adorable wheaten terrier Chloe. Emil is a practicing transactional lawyer, structuring and documenting complex debt instruments but, by his own admission, this is a boring part of his life. When he is not practicing, Emil enjoys reading and watching classics, history, fantasy,Click here to listen to the podcast!

This week at Elaine’s Literary Salon, we are excited to share our newest interview with critically acclaimed, bestselling author John Gilstrap. Today, he talks with Elaine’s Literary Salon host Jeffrey James Higgins about his new novels, writing process, and what makes his books so popular with readers. About the author and his books: When John Gilstrap’s first novel, Nathan’s Run, hit the market in 1996, it set the literary world on fire. Publication rights sold in 23 countries, the movieClick here to listen to the podcast!

When: Saturday, April 25, 2026 from 11-4pm Where: 208 Queen Street, Alexandria, Virginia 22314 Buy your ticket: beginningsandendings.eventbrite.com 60-minute in-person and virtual seminar, noon-1pm ET $30 for in-person (includes light meal and drink) Free for virtual attendees Password for your free ticket: Zoom Click here to join us in the Zoom room This seminar looks at how the opening and closing of a novel work in conversation with one another to shape the story as a whole. Rather than treatingClick here to listen to the podcast!

When: Saturday, February 21, 2026 from Noon to 1:30pm Where: 208 Queen Street, Alexandria, Virginia 22314 Buy your ticket: shapeofyourstory.eventbrite.com 90-minute in-person seminar: $125 $99 for writing group members: Click here to send us an email and we’ll give the code Capped at 20 writers This 90-minute seminar introduces writers to a structured but flexible way of thinking about planning or revising a novel. Drawing on Jennie Nash’s Blueprint for a Book method, the session offers a crash-course overview of the 14Click here to listen to the podcast!

A Note from Jeffrey James Higgins and Hope Katz Gibbs, ElainesLiterarySalon.com — Hello friends! We were thrilled to host a seminar on Jan. 29 featuring award-winning author and writing coach C.R. Rowenson. The video and podcast of the event is now live on our Salon site, InkandescentRadio.com, Spotify, Apple, and iHeart Radio. Pick your favorite channel to watch and listen. We know you’ll learn a lot! Big news: On March 7, C.R. Rowenson will be in-person at ElainesLiterarySalon.com for anotherClick here to listen to the podcast!

When: Wednesday, May 13, 2026 from 6-9pm Where: 208 Queen Street, Alexandria, Virginia 22314 Get your free ticket: ElizabethHodges.eventbrite.com Meet the Author: Elizabeth Hodges was 38 when she got the news, “You have leukemia.” Six weeks later, she was told she also had adult cystic fibrosis. With three young children, intense fear set in that she might not live to see them grow up. Instead of giving in, she became determined to prioritize her role as a mother and leadClick here to listen to the podcast!

When: Saturday, April 18, 2026 from 12-3pm Where: 208 Queen Street, Alexandria, Virginia 22314 Get your free ticket: wandarawlings.eventbrite.com Meet the Author: Wanda Rawlings is a Christian fiction author, Bible study teacher, and speaker with over three decades of experience as a civilian Federal employee and a lifelong passion for encouraging spiritual growth through storytelling and the Word of God. She is the creator and facilitator of the Root of the Matter Virtual Women’s Bible Study, a thriving ministry she hasClick here to listen to the podcast!

Meet the Author: Tom Straw is an Emmy and Writers’ Guild of America-nominated writer-producer, New York Timesand USA Today best-selling author, and former Mystery Writers of America board member. Writing as Richard Castle, Tom originated the Nikki Heat series, all New York Times Bestsellers. Under his own name he published The Trigger Episode, Buzz Killer, and the USA Today best-selling spy thriller, The Accidental Joe. In TV, Tom wrote for and produced the original Night Court, Dave’s World, Grace Under Fire,Click here to listen to the podcast!

Meet the Author: Adam S. Lovinger serves as Vice President for Strategic Affairs at the Gold Institute for International Strategy, a Washington D.C.-based think tank. In 2017, Adam was Senior Director for Strategic Assessments at the U.S. National Security Council (NSC). From 2006-2017 he provided direct support on long-term U.S. national security strategy to the Secretary of Defense from the Pentagon’s Office of Net Assessment (ONA). He has served as adjunct professor in three Georgetown University graduate schools and guestClick here to listen to the podcast!

About bestselling author Puja Guha: International Development Consultant. Global Citizen. Author of seven novels and four published short stories. Born into a family of acclaimed Indian architects, Puja traveled with her parents as they worked on projects around the world. After graduating from the University of Pennsylvania, Puja completed her Master’s degree in public policy at Sciences Po and the London School of Economics. Today, she works as an independent consultant on international development programs – primarily in Africa andClick here to listen to the podcast!

Meet the Author: Andrew Rubin is a filmmaker, writer, and cofounder of the mental health education company Symptom Media. A graduate of NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, where he studied Film Production and History, he has spent over a decade in the trenches of Hollywood development as a screenwriter. Andrew co-directed the inspirational documentary Ride with Larry, about Parkinson’s, inspired by his father’s battle against the disease. The film’s segment exploring Parkinson’s and medical marijuana received global attention, andClick here to listen to the podcast!