In our new series, Debut Discussions, we're asking debut authors to tell us their story -- not only the story in the novel they wrote -- but the journey they took to hold that book in their hands. On today's episode we welcome Jessica Saunders to discuss her debut, Love, Me, an honest examination of love, marriage, and the fantasy of a second-chance romance with the one that got away.

Like us, Jessica is a lawyer, who, after years of writing scintillating legal briefs, was finally able to fulfill her lifelong dream of writing fiction. In our chat, she shares her early love of reading (hellllo, she picked books as her bat mitzvah theme in 1994 - amazing!), the unthinkable loss that served as the inciting incident to pursuing her novelist dreams, her writing process and path to publication, from writing classes to landing an agent and what she’s learned along the way. We had so much fun chatting with Jessica!

Listen now to @jessicasaundersbooks’s story wherever you get your podcasts. Love, Me is out now -- buy it, read it, and share it (in other words, make a debut author’s dreams come true!).