Archive for August 2022
Closed Door, Open Door
Today marks my last day as an editor with Literary Mama. I started there in January 2014, after sending them a letter that basically said, “Hire me! I’m enthusiastic.” Of course, I had a few editing credentials to my name, too, but Literary Mama had confidence in me before I had confidence in myself. They…
Read MoreFreedom in Writing: An Interview with Rebecca Cuthbert
Award-winning author Rebecca Cuthbert is one of the people I know, but I honestly can’t remember how or when our paths—literal or virtual—crossed! I think that’s the way it goes these days with social media and online writing communities. But how we met doesn’t matter. I’m thrilled to have her on the blog today because…
Read MoreAnother Year Older
My birthday has come and gone, and here I am, another year older. But am I wiser? That’s a question I like to ask myself. I’m not sure I have an answer though. Of course for me, the answers never come quickly—my mind doesn’t work that way. Even when I taught every day—a subject I…
Read MoreBared by the Writing: An Interview with Ronni Robinson
Author and soon-to-be certified eating disorder recovery coach Ronni Robinson and I connected online over a year ago—about books, of course. Her debut memoir, Out of the Pantry: A Disordered Eating Journey, had been published in July 2020, and like many authors who debuted during the early months of the pandemic, she was looking for…
Read MoreSecond-Chance Situations: An Interview with Jeff Ross
Author Jeff Ross first contacted me to chat about editing. He’d been referred by a former client (thanks, T.S.!) and wanted to polish up his story, The Burglar, before he republished the book, which is an “entertaining, fun ‘mystery’ . . . that is told from both human and pets points of view.” One reader…
Read More#ThrowbackThursdayBookstagram: Gone Girl
#ThrowbackThursdayBookstagram is thrilled to feature GONE GIRL by Gillian Flynn. First off, please know that Goodreads has this book standing at 2,723,348 ratings and 142,095 reviews, which means, regardless of your opinion, a lot of people read the book. And that, my friends, is something I like to hear. We can all have differing opinions,…
Read MoreAt Least a Little While
Here we are, at Wednesday of this week, and so far, I feel like it should be Friday. Actually, it should have been Friday at the end of Monday, but it wasn’t. What a shame. None of the events of the week have been onerous, per se, but because the kids head back to school…
Read MoreA Beautiful, Possible Daydream: An Interview with Marlon Hayes
Being connected with Diane Windsor of Motina Books has been a true pleasure for many reasons, only one of which is that she put me in touch with Marlon Hayes (who also writes as Marlon S. Hayes). When I initially emailed Marlon about conducting an interview, he replied in a very timely fashion with a…
Read More#ThrowbackThursdayBookstagram: The Poisonwood Bible
#ThrowbackThursdayBookstagram welcomes THE POISONWOOD BIBLE by Barbara Kingsolver! If you follow this series, you’ll know that last week, I talked about how I’m not a “literary” reader or writer. So when someone suggested reading this book, I was wary. I had only one previous encounter with a Kingsolver novel (Prodigal Summer), and though I loved…
Read MoreStrong and Fearless: An Interview with Kristin Smith
One of the beautiful benefits of this interview series is that each interview has the power to bring authors and readers together as well as connect me with new-to-me authors. Shortly after I ran an interview with Charissa Weaks, an email arrived in my inbox from author Kristin Smith, a “former Pitch Wars mentor who…
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