You may have noticed my intros have been getting shorter due to — well, due to the extreme yikes we’re all dealing with these days. So today’s intro will be a brief commercial for my newly-discovered coping mechanism during these tough times: donating to a cause that helps someone, somewhere, deal better with the yikes. If you can afford it, even a small donation to a place like Meals on Wheels or No Kid Hungry can help. Tough times are tougher on some than others, so let’s all do what we can.

On that note! Times are not great for authors with new books out, as you might guess. They’re seeing conferences, events and festivals canceled left and right. Today’s guest Alma Katsu was only able to get in a couple of tour stops for her new book THE DEEP before the tour was, well, stopped. So now is the perfect time to host her here and mention that the Library Journal gave THE DEEP a starred review and called it “A riveting, seductively menacing tale of love, loss, and betrayal set amid the glamour of the Titanic.” Order it from your favorite indie bookstore online!

Alma Katsu writes character-driven stories that combine history with the supernatural. Her 2018 novel THE HUNGER, a retelling of the story of the Donner Party, made a number of lists of Best Books of 2018 and was nominated for the Stoker and Locus awards for best horror novel. Her latest novel, just out, is THE DEEP, a reimagining of the sinking of the Titanic and its sister ship the Britannic. She’s also written a serialized graphic novel for Porsche and 2021 will see publication of her first spy novel, RED WIDOW, for which she drew on a long career in intelligence.

Alma’s #read99women pick is Danielle Trussoni’s THE ANCESTOR, coming from Harper Collins on April 7th:

"The bestselling author of ANGELOLOGY is back with a new novel that combines history, horror, and science in a thoroughly entertaining and unexpected way. It seems that Alberta 'Bert' Monte’s prayers are being answered when she finds out she's the last of a wealthy European noble family. In order to receive her inheritance, however, she has to visit the family estate in a remote mountaintop in the Alps. In short order, Bert finds she's trapped and has no choice but to figure out what secrets her family has been keeping. It's from this point that the novel goes in a completely unexpected and daring direction. You'll never look at genealogy in the same way."

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