By Connie B. Dowell
5
22 ratings
The podcast currently has 169 episodes available.
On this episode of Authoring Onward, I chat with Emily Jon Tobias about gesture in writing, her winding path to publication, and so much more!
This is going to be one of the final episodes of Authoring Onward. We have had a great run, but as both Joy and I are moving on to new adventures, it’s time to say goodbye for now. We will still have the archive of episodes up for the foreseeable future! A farewell episode is in the works.
About Emily:
Emily Jon Tobias is an American author and poet with her debut story collection, MONARCH, forthcoming by Black Lawrence Press on May 17, 2024. She is an award-winning writer whose work has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, along with other honorable mentions, and has been featured in various literary journals and magazines. Midwestern-raised, she now lives and writes on the coast of Southern California where she is at work on her debut novel and other projects. She holds a Master of Fine Arts in Writing from Pacific University Oregon.
Emily’s website
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This week, I chatted with Cynthia Newberry Marten about so many things: releasing books close together, writing characters at different ages and stages, and her 50-state book tour. Wow!
Have a listen.
About Cynthia
Cynthia Newberry Martin’s (she/her/hers) first novel, Tidal Flats, won the Gold Medal in Literary Fiction at the 2020 Independent Publisher Book Awards and the 14th Annual National Indie Excellence Award for Fiction. Her website features the How We Spend Our Days series, over a decade of essays by writers on their lives. She grew up in Atlanta and now lives in Columbus, Georgia, with her husband, and in Provincetown, Massachusetts, in a little house by the water. Her third novel, The Art of Her Life, will be published in June of 2023.
Cynthia’s website
Get in touch
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This week, Joy and I had a great chat with Marjorie Hudson about writing southern fiction as a transplant to the south, finding a writing community, and so much more! Have a listen for a great chat and an excerpt of her work.
About Marjorie:
“I grew up in the North,” Marjorie says, “but I got here as fast as I could.”
Marjorie Hudson was born in a small town in Illinois and raised in Washington, D.C., where she graduated from American University with a degree in Journalism and Women’s Studies. After serving as features editor of National Parks Magazine, she moved to rural North Carolina, working as a freelance writer with a column interviewing nature photographers and publishing articles in Garden & Gun, American Land Forum, Wildlife in North Carolina, Our State Magazine, and North Carolina Literary Review. As copyediting chief for Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, she encountered the work of contemporary Southern writers such as Jill McCorkle, Kaye Gibbons, and Clyde Edgerton for the first time. Inspired, she turned her hand to fiction writing, and her first story won a statewide award judged by Shannon Ravenel. She earned an MFA from Warren Wilson College. She lives with her husband, Sam, and feisty small terrier DJ, on a century farm in North Carolina, where she mentors writers and reads poetry to trees.
Marjorie’s website
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My editorial services
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We’re back for Spring 2023! And for the first episode of the season, I chat with Cheryl King about her historical fiction, the way she finds inspiration by participating in writing contests, and so much more. Have a listen!
About Cheryl:
After 12 years in the newspaper business, I got the teaching bug and became a middle-school language arts teacher. I then got a master’s degree in literacy and served my district as a literacy coach. Now I am a licensed Dyslexia Therapist.
While I have a fulfilling day job, writing is in my blood, and it’s about time I get something published (I’m no spring chicken). When I’m not working, I’m either reading or typing away, trying to create the perfect fiction piece for #NYCMidnight and other writing contests. My debut novel, Sitting on Top of the World (young-adult historical fiction) was published on June 15, 2021, but my publisher closed three weeks later. I have republished my book with a brand-new cover by author and illustrator Jamie Hitt, and some updates inside.
Since republishing, my book was given the amazing honor of winning first place in the YA category in the Eric Hoffer Book Awards. It also won a First Horizon Award for debut authors and was shortlisted for the Grand Prize. I am now working on the sequel, Under the Pawpaw Trees, to be published in 2023.
Cheryl’s website
My editorial and coaching services
Joy’s editorial and coaching services
This week, Joy and I chatted with my author buddy Michelle Nott about her new book, Teddy Let’s Go, writing quiet books, persistence, pivoting, and so much more! It was a great chat full of lessons for children’s and adult writers alike. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
Also, this is the last episode of our autumn season. See you in early 2023!
About Michelle:
Michelle Nott is an author, poet, and freelance editor with articles and stories published in numerous online and print publications. Michelle is a member of SCBWI and CBI. Prior to a family move to Belgium, where they lived over a decade, she worked for a French company in the US and France, at an art gallery in NYC, and taught French (PreK – 12 and university levels).
Besides reading and writing, Michelle enjoys spending time with her family cooking, traveling, visiting art museums, taking long walks through the Belgian countryside, hiking along the Cornish coast and snow-shoeing in the French Alps. She currently resides in North Carolina.
Michelle’s poem INIS MEAIN earned an Honorable Mention from Writer’s Digest in their 80th Annual Competition. Michelle has authored two Early Readers: FREDDY, HOPPIE AND THE EYEGLASSES and DRAGON AMY’S FLAMES. Her debut Picture Book, TEDDY LET’S GO!, is available for now (Enchanted Lion Books, Fall 2022).
Get Teddy Let’s Go!
Joy has book coaching openings starting in late January.
I’ve got coaching and editing openings.
New Novella: Calamity at the Christmas Concert
Joy’s giveaway
New Writer Wellness Gift Pack on her site
Doing some 2023 planning for your writing/publishing? Here are some episodes that may help!
This week we talked about writing your passion with Julie Carrick Dalton. Julie writes powerful stories that deal with climate issues. We talked about the value of writing your passion, creating characters readers connect with, and so much more!
About Julie:
Julie Carrick Dalton is the Boston-based author of The Last Beekeeper and Waiting for the Night Song, named a Most Anticipated 2021 novel by CNN, Newsweek, USA Today, Parade, and others, and an Amazon Editor’s pick for Best Books of the Month. A Bread Loaf, Tin House, and GrubStreet Novel Incubator alum, Julie is a frequent speaker on the topic of Fiction in the Age of Climate Crisis at universities, conferences, libraries, and museums. Her writing has appeared in Chicago Review of Books, Orion, Newsweek, The Boston Globe, Electric Literature, Lit Hub, and other publications. When she isn’t writing, you can usually find Julie digging in her garden, skiing, kayaking, or walking her dogs.
Joy has book coaching openings starting in late January.
I’ve got coaching and editing openings.
New Novella: Calamity at the Christmas Concert
Joy’s giveaway
New Writer Wellness Gift Pack Coming Next Week
Hello and happy Thanksgiving! We’re back from break. We had a great chat with author Allen Klein. He shares about the therapeutic benefits of humor and many lessons learned from his long career in publishing.
Have a listen… and a laugh!
About Allen:
Allen’s Site
Allen’s TED talk
Ever hear of a “Jollytologist®”? Well meet the world’s one and only Allen Klein. Through his books and his presentations, Klein shows people worldwide how to deal with everything from traffic jams to tragedies.
Klein got into this unusual line of work after his wife died of a rare liver disease at the age of 34. He saw how humor helped her, and those around her, cope. He also saw how humor helped him get through that loss. He now teaches others how to find some in trying times. Those audiences include people in 48 states as well as Israel and Australia, and clients from IBM to the IRS.
Klein is an award-winning speaker and best-selling author. He is the recipient of a Toastmasters Communication and Leadership Award and a Certified Speaking Professional designation from the National Speakers Association. (Less than 800 of its 4,000 members have this honor.) Klein has authored, among other books, The Healing Power of Humor, Quotations to Cheer You Up, Up Words for Down Days, and The Courage to Laugh. The first book, The Healing Power of Humor, shows people how to use humor to deal with everyday trials and tribulations; the latter book, The Courage to Laugh, documents how people have used humor to triumph over tragedy.
Klein has a master’s degree in humor from St. Mary’s College in Minnesota (and that’s no joke!) And he is well suited to his subject. Years before becoming a “Jollytologist®”, Klein was nicknamed the “King of Whimsy” because he designed all the children shows at CBS television in New York City. Among those productions was one you probably remember the Captain Kangaroo show.
Although no longer working in the light-hearted world of children, Klein still believes that adults need to take a lesson from them and lighten up. To help adults do this, Klein is both the editor of The Mid-Month Mirth Memo e-zine, founder of International Mirth Month (every March), and past-president of the Association of Applied and Therapeutic Humor (www.aath.org).
Comedian Jerry Lewis has said that Klein is “a noble and vital force watching over the human condition.” And who would have thought that it would be a “Jollytologist®”?
Get in touch with us!
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This week, Joy and I chat with Valerie Nieman about her books and the vivid setting she creates. Ever wondered how to deepen your own settings? Have a listen for Valerie’s tips and exercises to craft unforgettable settings.
Reminder: We’ll be out next week for the holiday. Be back at you in two weeks!
About Valerie
Valerie Nieman is the author of five novels: In the Lonely Backwater, a YA/crossover thriller in the Southern gothic tradition, launched this spring from Regal House/Fitzroy Books.
An audiobook version is out for To the Bones, a cross-genre mystery first published in 2019. Kirkus says: “Evocative, intelligent prose conjures an anxious mood and strong sense of place while spotlighting the societal and environmental devastation wrought by the coal mining industry.”
Other novels are Blood Clay, a novel of the New South, which was honored with the Eric Hoffer Prize in General Fiction; Survivors, a novel about the Rust Belt of the 1970s, and her first book, Neena Gathering, reissued in 2012 as a classic in the post-apocalyptic genre.
Nieman’s third poetry collection, Leopard Lady: A Life in Verse, debuted with a reading at the Coney Island Museum and was a runner-up for the Brockman-Campbell Book Prize. Her second poetry collection, Hotel Worthy, appeared in 2015 from Press 53, and poems from that book were nominated for The Pushcart Prize and Best Short Fictions of 2016, where the title poem was a finalist. She is also the author of Wake Wake Wake, and a collection of short stories, Fidelities.
She was a 2013-2014 North Carolina Arts Council poetry fellow, and has received an NEA creative writing fellowship as well as major grants in West Virginia and Kentucky. Her awards include the Greg Grummer, Nazim Hikmet, and Byron Herbert Reece poetry prizes.
Nieman graduated from West Virginia University and Queens University of Charlotte. A former professor and
Get in touch with us
Joy’s coaching and editing services
My coaching and editing services
This week, Joy and I chatted with historical fiction author and book coach Susanne Dunlap. We had a great chat about research inspiration, mining one’s own family or local history for story ideas, and much more!
About Susanne:
Susanne Dunlap is the author of twelve works of historical fiction for adults and teens, as well as an Author Accelerator Certified Book Coach. Her love of historical fiction arose partly from her studies in music history at Yale University (PhD, 1999), partly from her lifelong interest in women in the arts as a pianist and non-profit performing arts executive. Her novel The Paris Affair won first place in its category in the CIBA Dante Rossetti awards for Young Adult Fiction. The Musician’s Daughter was a Junior Library Guild Selection and a Bank Street Children’s Book of the Year, and was nominated for the Utah Book Award and the Missouri Gateway Reader’s Prize. In the Shadow of the Lamp was an Eliot Rosewater Indiana High School Book Award nominee. Susanne earned her BA and an MA (musicology) from Smith College, and lives in Biddeford, ME, with her little dog Betty.
Susanne’s website
Joy’s journal and Writer Wellness swag giveaway
Joy’s coaching and editing
My coaching and editing (just a few spots left in 2022)
This week on the podcast we chatted with PJ McIlvaine about one of my favorite topics (because it’s something I am always trying to tweak and figure out myself) work/life balance for writers. Have a listen and learn from her wealth of experience.
We also chatted about PBPitch, the Twitter pitch event for picture book writers and illustrators, of which she is a founder. PBPitch has already happened for fall 2022, but be on the lookout for more pitching fun. This event happens several times a year.
About PJ:
PJ McIlvaine is a prolific and creative children’s author/screenwriter/writer/journalist.
PJ’s debut middle-grade supernatural historical mystery adventure VIOLET YORKE, GILDED GIRL: GHOSTS IN THE CLOSET (Darkstroke Books, April 2022) is about a poor little rich girl in NYC 1912 who sees ghosts.
PJ’s debut picture book LITTLE LENA AND THE BIG TABLE (June 2019, Big Belly Book Co.), with illustrations by Leila Nabih, is about a determined little girl tired of eating with her annoying cousins at the kid’s table, only to discover that the big table isn’t much better. She has another picture book, DRAGON ROAR (MacLaren-Cochrane Publishing, October 2021) artwork by Logan Rogers, about a lonely, sick dragon who has lost his mighty roar, and the brave village girl who helps him find it again.
PJ is also a co-host and founding member of #PBPitch, the premiere Twitter pitch party for picture book creators.
PJ has been published in numerous outlets including The New York Times and Newsday, and is a regular contributor for The Children’s Book Insider newsletter (paid firewall), writing about the path to publication and interviews with established and debut kid lit authors.
PJ lives on Eastern Long Island with her family and furbaby Luna.
PJ’s social media links:
PJ’s website: https://pjmacwriter.com
Twitter: @pjmcilvaine
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pj.mcilvaine
Instagram: @pjmcilvaine
Get in touch with us:
Connie’s editing and coaching services (currently a few spots left for 2022!)
Joy’s editing and coaching services
The podcast currently has 169 episodes available.