This week on Impostor Hour, hosts Liz Keenan and Greg Wands sit down with novelist Debbie Babbitt to explore her compelling journey from stage to page. A former actress and playwright, Babbitt brings a unique perspective to the world of thrillers, weaving her theatrical background into richly drawn characters and suspenseful plots.

They discuss the emotional architecture of character development and how Hitchcock’s signature storytelling style helped shape her voice as a writer. Babbitt shares how backstory can make or break a thriller, and reflects on the tightrope walk between writing and self-promotion in today’s publishing world.

Throughout the conversation, she opens up about navigating the challenges of imposter syndrome, coping with criticism, and finding strength in vulnerability. The episode also touches on the lasting impact of classic literature, the intricacies of narrative structure, and the way setting can function as a character in its own right.

Whether you're a writer, artist, or lover of story, this episode offers candid insights into the creative process—and a reminder that community and emotional honesty are essential to every great work.

In this episode of Imposter Hour, hosts Liz Keenan and Greg Wands welcome Alison Buccola to talk about her gripping new novel The Ascent. Together, they unpack themes of imposter syndrome, motherhood, and the psychological tension of characters caught between truth and memory.

Alison opens up about her writing journey, the research behind the cult at the center of her novel, and how personal experience and societal pressures shape the way she writes women. They also dig into the mental load of being creative while parenting, and how gender bias and self-doubt can sabotage the writing process before you even open the document.

She shares what it’s like to promote a book while quietly panicking, how community sustains her through it all, and what’s next — including her upcoming novel about three sisters and the complexities of memory, identity, and perception.

In this episode of Imposter Hour, Liz and Greg sit down with Raúl Palma, Cuban-American author of the haunting and brilliant debut novel A Haunting in Hialeah Gardens. Together, they explore how Palma’s background in writing and academia intersects with imposter syndrome and how debt — both financial and emotional — becomes a kind of haunting in his work.

Raúl talks about his protagonist, a spiritual healer who doesn’t believe in ghosts, and how that contradiction mirrors the emotional weight many of us carry. From the mechanics of capitalism to the invisible toll of poverty, this conversation dives deep into the intersections of identity, creativity, and survival.

They also dig into how writing can be a form of self-care, especially when confronting the emotional landscape shaped by capitalism. Raúl shares how cultural identity informs his fiction, the role of support systems in sustaining a writing life, and what it means to feel “unauthorized” to tell your own story — and to write anyway.