In this episode of The Jane Healey Happy Hour, Jane Healey speaks with New York Times bestselling author Sadeqa Johnson about her new novel Keeper of Lost Children. Johnson shares the little-known history that inspired the book, including the real story of journalist and adoption advocate Mabel Grammer, who helped place more than 500 mixed-race “brown babies” born in post–World War II Germany into American homes.

In this episode of The Jane Healey Happy Hour, host and bestselling author Jane Healey speaks with novelist Lisa Patton about her new book Kissing the Sky, a story set against the backdrop of the 1969 Woodstock music festival. Patton shares how watching the festival’s 50th anniversary coverage sparked the idea for the novel and how extensive research—including conversations with Woodstock organizers and access to newly discovered archival tapes—helped her recreate the historic event.

New York Times bestselling author Jenna Blum joins Jane Healey to celebrate the fifth anniversary—and rebrand—of the podcast and to discuss her sharp, darkly funny romantic thriller, Murder Your Darlings. The novel follows mid-career historical fiction writer Sam Verner as she embarks on a whirlwind romance with a charismatic, bestselling novelist—only to find herself entangled in a web of obsession, ambition, and mounting bodies. Jenna shares how she pivoted from historical fiction to suspense, why she wanted to explore codependency and narcissism, and how her own writing life inspired the novel’s behind-the-scenes publishing details. From blizzards in Maine to deliciously vile antiheroes, this conversation dives into love, power, and the strange, wonderful world of being a writer.