On today’s episode, we get to chat with southern novelist Mindy Friddle, whose third book (and first domestic thriller) Her Best Self is out now from Regal House Publishing. Her Best Self includes the perspectives of a constellation of characters, including first-person point-of-view from the protagonist, a small-town matriarch, as well as third-person from a range of characters including her husband, adult children, a neurodiverse grandson with an affinity for animals, and the antagonist, a magnetic grifter. Joining us for a conversation about the value in bringing not only multiple POVs to a thriller, but branching those perspectives out in all directions, Mindy casts the spotlight on puzzling through perspective, and building suspense. Mindy Friddle is author of the novel, Secret Keepers, (winner of the Willie Morris Award for Southern Fiction). The Garden Angel, her first novel and SIBA bestseller, was selected for Barnes & Noble’s Discover Great New Writers. The South Carolina Arts Commission awarded Mindy a prose fellowship, and she has twice won the state’s Fiction Prize. Her stories and essays have appeared in numerous journals. She holds an MFA from Warren Wilson and lives on Edisto Island, South Carolina. You can find Mindy online at mindyfriddle.com, and on Instagram @mindyfriddle Her Best Self is available from Regal House Publishing or support your local bookstore & this podcast by getting your copy of Her Best Self at Bookshop.org 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 Learn more about our hosts, the guests we've had, and their books - https://linktr.ee/AuthorExpressPodcast