Living The Writing Life Podcast with Nancy Christie

Wade Rouse is an award-winning author who also writes under the pen name of Viola Shipman, his grandmother’s name, that he chose to honor the woman whose heirlooms and family stories inspire his writing.

He has written several books under that pseudonym, including The Summer Cottage, The Heirloom Garden, and his most recent, The Clover Girls, which was released May 2021. His next book, The Secret of Snow, will be published in October.

The noted humorist of four critically acclaimed memoirs, Wade’s books have been selected multiple times as Must-Reads by NBC’s Today show, featured in USA Today, The Washington Post and Chelsea Lately and chosen three times as Indie Next Picks by the nation’s independent booksellers.

His books have been translated into 20 languages and are international bestsellers. He has also written for numerous publications, including People, Coastal Living, Good Housekeeping, and Taste of Home and is a contributor to All Things Considered.

For more about Wade, visit his website and follow him on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Goodreads, YouTube and BookBub.

For information about Viola Shipman, click this link and follow her on Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads, and Instagram.

In this conversation, we discuss the challenges and creative choice of writing women’s fiction as a male author.

Just a few thoughts on why we should remain open to opportunity, even if we don’t know where following it will take us.

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Gwen Goodkin is the author of the short story collection, A Place Remote, winner of the Silver IPPY in Great Lakes - Best Regional Fiction. Her novel, The Plant, was named a finalist in the Faulkner-Wisdom Novel-in-Progress competition, and her TV pilot script, "The Plant," based on that novel was named a quarterfinalist for Cinestory's TV/Digital retreat.

Gwen has won the Folio Editor's Prize for Fiction, the John Steinbeck Award for Fiction, the Silver Prize (Short Script) for her screenplay "Winnie" in the Beverly Hills Screenplay Contest and the Eyewear Publishing's Beverly Prize for her essay collection "Mass for the Shut Ins." She has twice been nominated for a Pushcart Prize.

Gwen’s educational background includes a B.A. from Ohio Wesleyan University and an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of British Columbia, and she has also studied at the Universität Heidelberg.

But it’s her many physical addresses that are tied to today’s talk. Gwen was born and raised in Ohio, then moved to Troy, Michigan, then L.A. and now lives in Encinitas, California with her husband and daughters.

For more about Gwen, visit her website and follow her on Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Medium and Facebook.

In today’s conversation, we’ll discuss how the memories of home (both good and bad) work their way into our writing.

Just a few thoughts on the challenges in deciding how to define yourself as a writer—and whether you even should limit yourself to a specific category.

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Clare Pooley is the author of The Sober Diaries and The Authenticity Project—a New York Times and international bestseller, and winner of the RNA debut novel award. She joins us from Fulham, London, England where she lives with her husband, three children, two border terriers, and an African pygmy hedgehog!

After twenty years in the heady world of advertising where, according to her bio, she worked hard, played hard and drank even harder, Clare realized that she had to say farewell to alcohol, and started a blog—Mummy was a Secret Drinker—by way of therapy, which ultimately became a memoir: The Sober Diaries. Clare then used her experience of telling the truth about her own shady life to inspire her first novel: The Authenticity Project.

For more about Clare, visit her website and follow her on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

In this conversation, we talk about how writing (both fiction and nonfiction) can serve as a tool for those dealing with addictions, and what role writing plays in her life now.

Just a few thoughts on the importance of celebrating our small successes, even if no one else knows what we have accomplished.

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Rea Frey is the author of four suspense novels—Until I Find You, Because You're Mine, Not Her Daughter and Secrets of Our House that will be released February 2022—as well as several nonfiction books.

She is also the CEO and founder of Writeway™, where she teaches aspiring writers how they can become published authors, too, and host of her weekly Writeway podcast that helps demystify the publishing industry.

Rea says that her passion in life is “telling stories, connecting with readers, and helping other aspiring authors tell their stories too.”

For more about Rea, visit her website, her company website and follow her on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn.

In this conversation, we’ll talk about how to have a business-focused approach to writing and publishing without sacrificing your commitment to the art of writing.

Just a few thoughts on the surprising resilience of creativity.

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Jeffrey S. Stephens is the author of six novels: the Jordan Sandor espionage thrillers series, Crimes and Passion, the first in a planned series featuring Lieutenant Robbie Whyte, and his latest book, Fool’s Errand.

Fool’s Errand explores the relationship between a father and son, and the events that will ultimately lead that young man on an international treasure hunt that causes him to confront a collection of interesting characters as well as himself. It’s been described as poignant and entertaining, humorous and exciting, romantic and mysterious.

He has also recently completed a fifth espionage thriller—the book that follows Crimes and Passion, called Murder, Money & Marriage; and another stand-alone, titled The Next Ten Years, that deals with a famous media mogul who disappears. 

Jeffrey and his wife Nancy live in Greenwich, Connecticut. For more about him, visit his website and follow him on Facebook and Twitter.

In this conversation, we’ll talk about how personal life experiences can serve as an inspiration for writing and take the writer down a different path from previous projects.

Just a few thoughts on what baking yeast bread and writing have in common.

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