The Working Writer Podcast

Athena Dixon is a poet, essayist, and editor. And today is a HUGE day for her--her latest book, THE LONELINESS FILES, releases today! Happy launch day, Athena!

Additionally, her work is included in the anthology The BreakBeat Poets Vol.2: Black Girl Magic and her craft work appears in Getting to the Truth: The Craft and Practice of Creative Nonfiction. Athena is an alumna of VONA, Callaloo, and Tin House and has received a prose fellowship from The Martha’s Vineyard Institute of Creative Writing. Born and raised in Northeast Ohio, Athena now resides in Philadelphia.

Our convo explores the realities of being a working writer on a single income, how to find clearings in a calendar year to focus on deep writing and maintain project diversity. I hope you enjoy listening.

Connect with Athena:

AthenaDixon.com

On Instagram: @the_muse_paper

Connect with Tia:

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Instagram: ⁠⁠**@tialevingswriter**⁠⁠

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Book with Me for Content Coaching: ⁠⁠Tia's 1 on 1 Calendar⁠⁠

Author Melanie Brooks recently released her memoir of growing up forced to hide her father's painful secret-- his HIV/AIDS diagnosis after a blood transfusion. Join us for this broad conversation that shares the journey of writing A HARD SILENCE, as well as:

Connect with Melanie:

MelanieBrooks.com

@MelanieJMBrooksWriter on social media

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Instagram: ⁠⁠@tialevingswriter⁠⁠

TikTok : ⁠⁠@tialevingswriter⁠⁠

Book with Me for Content Coaching: ⁠⁠Tia's 1 on 1 Calendar⁠⁠

Ryan G. Van Cleve is an award-winning author, keynote speaker, teacher, and writing coach. They run the creative writing major at the Ringling College of Art and Design which has an annual free-to-enter creative writing contest for high school students. They serve as Editor at Bushel & Peck, which publishes exciting titles for kids, tweens, and teens.

They're also not-so-secretly known as the Picture Book Whisperer™–the industry’s go-to person to help celebrities and high-profile clients write and sell children’s books.

In this episode, Ryan shares a lifetime of hard-earned wisdom for every writer's practical challenge: how to pay the bills as a writer. We discuss maintaining multiple streams of income, setting realistic goals and expectations, and how writing opportunities you may not have considered can empower your overall career.

Find Ryan at the links above or at RyanGVanCleve.com

Writing Memoir for Dummies

The Weekend Book Proposal

Writing Sci-Fi, Fantasy, and Horror for Dummies

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Instagram: ⁠@tialevingswriter⁠

TikTok : ⁠@tialevingswriter⁠

Book with Me for Content Coaching: ⁠Tia's 1 on 1 Calendar⁠

Laura Cathcart Robbins is the author of the "quitlit" memoir, STASH: MY LIFE IN HIDING. Stash is Laura’s story of addiction, motherhood, imposter syndrome, being a woman of color, divorce, and privilege. Our conversation digs into her book journey and we had some frank and honest dialog about book promotion and the hard work of publishing well.

We also delved into writing and relationships, what it means to be a writer, and the power of a great query letter––which in Laura's case, was a powerful portal to success.

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Instagram: @tialevingswriter

TikTok : @tialevingswriter

Book with Me for Content Coaching: Tia's 1 on 1 Calendar

Connect with Laura Cathcart Robbins :

Alycia Ripley is an actor novelist, screenwriter, and director with over 20 years of experience in PR and brand marketing. In the months since we recorded this, Alycia directed a film she also wrote, currently in final production. In our chat, we cover a ton of working-writer topics, from industry trends to favorite software. One of my favorite things about Alycia is that she shares the insider tips! Support her projects through her patreon and I hope you enjoy the podcast! 

I met Laura on Instagram through her work educating and nurturing survivors of religious trauma. Over the years she's become a trusted friend and an incredible resource on all things trauma-healing. I wanted her for the show because of the volume of thoughtful, conscientious content she generates along with being a full-time therapist and running a business. Laura's a working writer extraordinaire and I'm excited to share her with podcast listeners. 

Here's more about her: 

Laura Anderson is a Licensed Psychotherapist with a private practice in Nashville, TN and an Abuse and Trauma Resolution Coach for clients outside of Tennessee. Her primary clientele deal with complex trauma including intimate partner violence, sexual abuse and assault and religious trauma. Laura heads the Center for Trauma Resolution and Recovery, is the co-founder of the Religious Trauma Institute and received her PhD with her research focused on the experience of living in a healed body after sexual trauma.

Laura is the author of two educational manuals: one on the topic of domestic violence and the other for clinicians and other healers regarding religious trauma, including how to work with clients who are hoping to heal from religious abuse and trauma. When she’s not working or writing, Laura enjoys spending time with her dog, Phoebe, hiking, being outdoors and spending time with her friends.

Using a pen name seemed like a good idea...

In this bonus episode of The Working Writer Podcast, I share the backstory of why I decided to use a pen name –– and why I changed my mind. 

Author Tim Gilmore. 

Good stories, investigations, and literary projects all start from the same seed: wonder. Curiosity is essential to writing. In episode 9, I bring you the most curious writer I know: Tim Gilmore. 

We meander through a variety of topics, including creative obsessions, launching a book during lock-down, suffering artists, and more. Tim's living literary project, jaxpsychogeo.com, gets much of our focus as we deep dive into process, poetry and passion for art. 

A fun behind-the-scenes factoid: as a professor, novelist, and non-fiction writer, Tim's breadth of work was the inspiration for The Working Writer Podcast. I wondered how he did it--worked and wrote prolifically--and I wondered how other writers did it. And so the show was born, out of wonder and curiosity. 

My favorite part of this episode is where I can hear Tim's curiosity perk up. He's the author of The Devil in the Baptist Church and Murder Capital, among several others. Check out his site! 

Photo credit: Bob Self of the T-U

Iowa Short Fiction Award winner Sohrab Homi Fracis shares how contests and competitions helped shape his writing career. In addition to the Iowa, Sohrab's work has been shortlisted and decorated by a long list of festivals and associations, including the South Asia Literary Association. He is warm, gracious, and intelligent and I appreciated the insight he shared on how novels and scripts can have much longer "legs" than just publication. 

Sohrab's timely novel on the immigrant experience, Go Home, is a perfect example of such long legs: it was recently shortlisted by Stanford for the William Saroyan International Prize. 

I'm excited to share my friend and his wisdom with you, my fellow working writers! 

A review of Go Home from Sohrab's website: 

"At the heart of Sohrab Homi Fracis's poignant new novel, Go Home, is the question of one's place in the world, the answer never more ambiguous or fragile than for the immigrant or exile, when a person's condition of homelessness is in transition, neither here nor there. Given the cultural moment, I'm grateful to Fracis for his highly topical reexamination of the American Dream, a still reliable but never easy remedy for all those yearning to reinvent themselves beyond the constrictions of tribe and nation. And in Go Home, assimilation, sometimes a wretched exercise, can also be a hilarious and uplifting affair."

Photo credit: Madison Gross

Misty Wagner gets real, real quick. Direct, warm, experienced, and connective, Misty’s authentic social engagement sets her apart from the fluff. She’s an entertainment writer, memoirist, and writing group facilitator, as well as a podcaster. Here’s a quick list of some of the topics we explored: