In this episode of The Collective Cast, host Chris Damron sits down with author Inger E. Johnson to discuss her debut novel, Veiled Halos: A Saga of Betrayal and Redemption, and a question every writer eventually faces: What does success actually look like for this book?
Veiled Halos is a sweeping historical family saga set in Colombia from the 1940s through the 2000s, with ties to Idaho. Three brothers. One family. A lifetime of truths bent, buried, and contested. The novel explores inheritance in every sense—land, faith, grievance, memory—and the stories families tell in order to survive. Power in this world rarely announces itself. It disguises itself as love, legality, and care.
Johnson, host of the first-time-author podcast Your Book Is In There, speaks candidly about launching a debut with moral weight rather than chasing a single definition of “making it.” The conversation examines what success can mean beyond rankings: reaching the right readers, telling a story that needed to be told, finishing what was started, and measuring a book’s life by connection instead of noise.
Listeners will hear how Johnson framed her own goals for Veiled Halos, what she hoped the book would do in the world, and how a first-time novelist can stay grounded once the manuscript leaves the desk.
Veiled Halos is available on Amazon. Learn more about Inger E. Johnson and her work at yourbookisinthere.com.
