Six authors with notable spring debuts.

Spring 2014 Flying Starts: Anne Blankman

While on maternity leave in 2010, Anne Blankman, a public librarian in York County, Va., found herself craving a particular kind of read.

Spring 2014 Flying Starts: Brandy Colbert

In July 2011, three days after being laid off from a job in Chicago, Brandy Colbert got the call she’d been waiting for—Tina Wexler of ICM was on the line, offering to be her literary agent, representing the novel that would become her YA debut.

Spring 2014 Flying Starts: Kate Samworth

Audubon Park in New Orleans was a favorite haunt of painter Kate Samworth, the creator of Aviary Wonders Inc. (Clarion, Mar.)

Spring 2014 Flying Starts: Leslye Walton

If you were to ask Leslye Walton about her approach to becoming an author, her reply would probably involve the phrase, “Well, we’ll see.”

Spring 2014 Flying Starts: S.E. Grove

Several years ago, when Sylvia Grove was working on her doctoral dissertation on early Central American History, she needed something else to do to keep her from obsessing over it.

Spring 2014 Flying Starts: J.A. White

In the dark world of The Thickety: A Path Begins (HarperCollins/Tegen, May), 12-year-old Kara’s mother has been executed for the ultimate sin—magic—and Kara lives a precarious life as a suspected witch.