Your Debut Novel

It's Acadiana: Out to Lunch

There’s a saying in the music industry: You have your whole life to make your first record. But one shot at making your second.

Novelist Jennifer Moorhead, wrote three books before publishing her debut, Broken Bayou in 2024. It’s a thriller inspired by a real murder mystery, tapping into the nation’s ongoing obsession with true crime.

Jennifer has always been a bookworm. She grew up in Shreveport and went to LSU, later moving to Dallas where she took up a novel writing class at Southern Methodist University. That’s when she wrote her first unpublished novel.

She paused to have her first child and wrote a second book when her kids were old enough to go to school, shelving it after a couple of edits.

Jennifer dove into the publishing world with her third novel. She hired an editor. Worked with a literary agent and spent a year shopping the book. Unsuccessfully.

Along the way, she had written the first draft of a fourth novel, Broken Bayou — in 2015. Inspired by the story of a missing teacher who police believed drove her car into the bayou, Broken Bayou is a crime thriller that follows a child psychologist thrust into a grisly mystery in small town Louisiana.

The book was published by publishing imprint Thomas & Mercer and released in 2024, almost ten years after that first draft.

Jennifer's story of tenacity in the face of the relentless rejection of the publishing industry is almost a novel in itself.

Out to Lunch Acadiana was recorded live over lunch at Tsunami Sushi in downtown Lafayette. You can find photos from this show at itsacadiana.com.

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