In Conversation with Jo Parfitt Podcast

Jo Parfitt talks to Amanda Graham, a British therapist and expat who also runs a yoga and wellness retreat in Charente, France, about the healing power of journaling. 

Discover how and why putting pen to paper can be so helpful when dealing with depression, anxiety and other mental health issues while picking up some tools you can start using right away.

Jo Parfitt talks to Berni Nason, a British writer,  actress and expat now based in Austin, Texas, about her latest memoir, Stealing Baby Jesus. 

This is her second memoir, the first being Tea in Tripoli. 

During our chat Berni explains how she turns real life into books that are both compelling and amusing and how she then goes on to use her acting and playwriting skills to create take those stories to the stage.

In this masterclass I spoke to journalling expert and author of Black and Abroad, Carolyn Van Es-Vines, about how journalling can be adapted and used for self-reflection, insight and increased self-awareness.

In this session we will also put her ideas into practise and did some journalling together. 

Find out more about Carolyn's amazing approach to journalling – not to mention the benefits for mental health, self awareness and wellbeing – on her website: writingforselfreflection.com

Kristin Duncombe has already written two terrific memoirs, Trailing and Five Flights Up. Now she is writing her third.  

A practising psychotherapist and expatriate, she understands many of the issues her clients battle with. But the difference is that she writes about them too.  Frank and funny, you will love her books.  

In this In Conversation Masterclass we talked about the tricks and tools she uses to write about issues that many would find painful to revisit, express and share with the world including divorce, identity, coercion and abuse.

Want to know how to get your book in the press? Or want to know how book marketing even works?

Georgina Shaw of Shaw Marketing Services has helped many author clients, especially expat, get media coverage on a range of platforms, press and magazines.

We talked about what kind of media platforms are available, and how to choose the most valuable ones. We discussed pitching to publications and how to pitch a winning idea even without an existing writing portfolio.

In this episode, Jo talks to the author of one of Summertime Publishing's most consistent seller in their Expat Bookshop: The Global Nomad's Guide to University Transition.

Jo says that 'no other' book in her publishing house has sold so well for so many years, now going on 12 years, as it helps Third-Culture Kids & international students transition to university in their 'home' countries.

Tina tells all about how she found a niche market for her book and continued to engage with her audience to generate consistent sales for her book.

Tina's three main reasons for success are:

In this episode of the In Conversation With.. Jo Parfitt podcast Jo talks to Signe Myers Hovem, a long-time friend and recent author of The Space Between: An Empath's Field Guide. 

Jo and Signe met 30 years ago in Stavanger, where Jo taught writing classes, and their children became friends.

Signe has moved 22 times in life from her home of Boulder, Colorado, and talks about the power of community she found in writers groups & the power of language to create connections.

She says a writer's group can be great for expats struggling to integrate with locals, and especially those interested in self-expression. 

Signe talks about her journey with words through mobility and her journey to becoming a spiritual counsellor.

You may not have heard of the term 'distant families', but the COVID-19 pandemic has made Helen Ellis' book incredibly timely.

In this episode, Jo Parfitt talks to new author Helen Ellis and her book Being a Distant Grandparent: A Book for ALL Generations.

Helen is an anthropologist and turned her Master's thesis into a book to help families thrive albeit being overseas, after saying there was 'nothing out there' on the subject.

She says her research armed her with statistics – such as 23% of grandparents in New Zealand saying their children and grandchildren live overseas – and inspired her to work on an upcoming trilogy to support all three generations of distant families. 

For this In Conversation Masterclass I decided to do something different and invited three memoirists for a group discussion of the craft. I was joined by Margaret Ghielmetti, author of Brave(ish): A memoir of a Recovering Perfectionist (which I reviewed here), Doreen M. Cumberford, author of Life in the Camel Lane, and Jo Weaver, author of 100 Days in Spain: Diary of a Lockdown. Though their books varied wildly in subject and scope, their journeys to publication shared many of the same challenges that any author can learn from.

All three of my guests found themselves stumbling into the memoir format. Jo’s book developed out of a blog she wrote to relieve stress during lockdown that soon earned her an unexpected audience of two thousand readers. Margaret, on the other hand, only realised that she was really writing a memoir in the middle of developing a solo show using old trip reports she used to send to her parents. On realising this, she took a course called “Memoir in a Year” at StoryStudio Chicago to sharpen her skills for this new form, after which she hired the writing coach. Doreen’s book was born from a passion for travel after spending a number of years living in the Middle East, and she dubbed it a ‘learnoirr’.

If you would like to know more about a particular aspect of writing or publishing, please don't hesitate to contact me on [email protected].

Thank you for letting me join you on your book writing journey.

Happy listening.

In this episode I talk to Anne Rainbow about story arcs and themes in a memoir or novel.

Anne is a writer of poetry, short stories, plays, novels and blogs, and through her website SchrivenerVirgin she helps writers to use the Schrivener word processing programme as well as coaching them through editing and self publishing. Most of Anne's efforts though are directed towards blogging as ScrivenerVirgin and mentoring other writers. To this end, Anne set up RedPen Training/Editing.

Her first non-fiction Kindle book, EDITING The RedPen Way, was published in September 2016.

If you would like to know more about a particular aspect of writing or publishing, please don't hesitate to contact me on [email protected].

Thank you for letting me join you on your book writing journey.

Happy listening.