If you're an author, surely you've heard the "write what you know" advice. For author and retired educator Deborah Holt Larkin, she knew quite well the story that gripped her town as a child, and also her father's career as a journalist.

In this episode of The Written Scene, Deborah discusses how she's always been a reader and how that helps determine what's a good book, using her writing talents to write grants, why early on the idea of writing a book was a fleeting thought here and there, the usefulness of having a journalist for a father who kept everything, what was easy or difficult to write a book, learning how to be a better writer with each draft, encountering self-doubt during the writing process, how a read and critique group can keep us on task, providing feedback more to help a story than to change it, the ways age can play a role in getting published, what a shopping agreement is for screenplays, how swimming competitively helped her market the book, and much more.

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Music: Addis Ababa by Eshi Era