A Conversation with Bestselling Author Wade Rouse "Viola Shipman"

Wade Rouse is the USA TODAY, Publishers Weekly and internationally bestselling author of 15 books, including five memoirs and ten novels. Wade’s books have been translated into 21 languages and have been bestsellers across the world. He chose his grandmother’s name, Viola Shipman, as a pen name to honor the working poor Ozarks woman whose sacrifices changed his family’s life and whose memory inspires his fiction. His latest book is the winter/Christmas novel, A Wish for Winter, which was published in November 2022.

2022 has been a busy year for Wade, who published three new books. They include The Edge of Summer (July), inspired by his grandmother’s buttons and button jars, which was an instant national and indie bestseller; Magic Season (May), his first memoir in a decade, about how the love of baseball was the only thing to bond him and his Ozarks father, which was a Barnes & Noble Father’s Day selection, a USA Today summer reading sports book selection, and a Best Book of Summer by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel.

Wade earned his B.A. from Drury University and his master’s in journalism from Northwestern University. He divides his time between Saugatuck, Michigan, and Palm Springs, California, and is also an acclaimed writing teacher who has mentored numerous students to become published authors.

Wade hosts the popular Facebook Live literary happy hour, “Wine & Words with Wade,” every Thursday at 6:30 p.m. EST on the Viola Shipman author page where he talks writing, inspiration and hope, takes readers on tours of the places that inspire his novels, throws costumed monthly office parties, and welcomes bestselling authors and publishing insiders.

For more, please visit www.violashipman.com or www.waderouse.com