Writer's Voices

For Merrill, the road to completing this novel was not without its challenges. He explains how he went from setting a goal of finishing Fast Food Detective in three months to finally completing it after 32 years. Throughout that time, he faced many stumbling blocks and criticisms that took him back to years of rewrites and revisions, at one point even putting it aside before returning to it five years later. One of his motivations for finally finishing the book came from a famous DaVinci quote that said, “Art is never finished, only abandoned.”

For his next project, Merrill, who resides in Mexico and is studying to be a pilates and yoga instructor, is working on a yoga book teaching readers about basic and self-created yoga techniques that he uses in his morning and evening routines. He also has two more novels in the works, a romantic comedy and a drama. What will he do differently this time around? “I’ll write it in six months! I won’t put adjectives and adverbs…well actually I will…So I’ll write it and there will be tons of adjectives and adverbs in it but I know now about how to clean it up and I also know about character strength and that kind of stuff.”

It’s not what you say, it’s what you whisper. You want to create this feeling from this sentence that makes that person kind of use their imagination, suck them into that whole feeling of what you’re doing.

If you want to write, you’ve got to experience life first.

The conception of this book came during a time when Crook became aware of the way technology impacted not only herself, but also the world around her. “…I had a curiosity of about what would happen if I gave up the Internet for a stretch of time, which I did for 31 days. We’re actually in the season of Lent right now, so the season of kind of giving something up, and I did that sort of at the beginning of a year, January first, and that experiment lead into the writing of my first book, The Joy of Missing Out , and the rest, as they say, is history.”

In Good Burdens , Crook encourages her readers to find 100 joys in their life, regardless of how big or small. She also elaborates on the Harvard Grant Study, which she includes in her book and is the longest longitudinal study of human development in history. What they found from this extensive, 100-year study was simply that “happiness is love, full stop.'”

It’s very easy to disconnect or to disregard the importance of joy…So I think the practice of connecting to even one joy can spark something in you…They impact my creativity, they impact my energy levels, and ultimately, they impact my work and my relationships as a result and so that’s why, I think, centering a conversation around joy is incredibly important.

…Find out where joy resides, and give it a voice far beyond singing. For to miss the joy is to miss all.

Tahir went on to speak about her inspiration for writing All My Rage, which she has described as the book of her heart. The concept for the story began in the early 2000’s, during which she experienced some of the same events that her characters went through. She explained that the motel from the story was inspired by the motel where she grew up, and that years later when she had gone off to college, her father became ill and her mother had to sell the motel. Tahir wasn’t able to say goodbye and get closure on her childhood home so she decided to start writing about the many emotions she went through during that time, which became the genesis of this book.

For Tahir, one of her goals when creating her stories is for her readers to relate to and see themselves in the characters she writes about, especially those on the outer edges or trying to sort through their own emotional struggles. She said, “My hope is I will always write about characters who look like me, always. That is sort of why I write. It’s so whatever kid or adult feels like they that haven’t been represented yet, that they don’t necessarily have a place in this world, they’ll pick up a book and they’ll say, ‘oh that’s me.’ … because I didn’t get that as a young person. I didn’t feel like I was in any books that I read and I don’t want that to happen to young people. Now I don’t think it should.”

I really try to go where my creativity takes me. I don’t like to stay in a box. I don’t like to just be a fantasy writer or just be a contemporary writer. I have ideas that run the gamut…I have so many that I think that I could honestly live a hundred years and I probably wouldn’t get to write all of them.

Once I thought to write a history of the immigrants in America. Then I discovered that the immigrants were American history.

Christopher also elaborates on her inspiration for writing this story, the near extinction of the American bison at the end of the 19th century, and her thoughts on working with Steve Semken from Ice Cube Press. Her advice for those who want to turn their interesting family stories into a book is, “…try to get all the rest of the family on board because there’s nothing like that big family to support you… and the other thing that I would say is… try to find and use local contacts before you go crazy on Google. There’s a lot of stuff out there…that was how I found my publisher and my editors and everybody who helped me with this book was just reaching out locally.”

Sitting Bull was one of the best known of the Indian chiefs, very little is known about him personally, his true character, his experiences. This book was bringing out, not a lot of that, but a little.

Let us put our minds together and see what life we can make for our children.

Sepetys goes on to describe the bleak conditions the people of Romania were facing during that time of oppression. While watching movies from the west, Romanians saw people living lives of freedom that appeared to be fictional and pure fantasy. Little did they know, that was the reality of the outside world; it was later discovered that Ceausescu and his wife were living in opulance while the Romanian citizens starved and remained isolated. How did Ceausescu get away with this? Sepetys explained that he was able to appear as a benevolent leader, having allied with the U.S., France, and England, and speaking out against the Soviet Union. Those countries felt that Ceausescu was a friend they could trust. Additionally, very few tourists visited the country at the time due to the country’s shortage of food and therefore, few outsiders saw what life was really like there.

In addition to being a full-time author, Sepetys is also a presenter, speaking to audiences such as NATO, the European Parliament, and embassies from all around the world. Her topic of discussion is the power of historical fiction, which she believes helps to create opportunities for global dialogue. “Sharing these pieces of hidden history and encouraging dialogue and also pointing out that historical fiction is such a powerful genre, in reading groups and study circles, we actually have readers from families who stood on opposite sides of history and here we come together in a book club or in a reading circle and we’re discussing that history. History divided us, but I point out at these events that through reading, we can be united in story and study and remembrance and that’s the power of books.”

When justice cannot shape memory, remembering the past can be a form of justice.

Naymark also discussed being born in Moscow before the fall of the Soviet Union, her thoughts on the financial crisis some middle class families are facing today, and the art of reading Russian fortune-telling cards, called Cartomancy. Her advice for aspiring writers trying to get their first book published is to be persistent. “If writing is what makes you happy, write. Write the best thing that you can, and I would say, write because you love writing, that’s really the only advice.”

The more you write, the better you’re going to get. Persistence and loving what you do are the two main things that basically will lead to a good career as a published author.

Superstition is to religion what astrology is to astronomy, the mad daughter of a wise mother. These daughters have too long dominated the earth.

During the conversation, Ferencik discussed the prevalence of climate change found in several of her novels. She said, “It’s a part of our lives right now and it helps us to process, it’s kinda like watching a scary movie… I think that climate change in novels, it offers a huge, I mean sad as it is, it offers a huge opportunity to explore this world that we live in.” When asked how much of herself is in her characters, she said, “I’m all of them… I’m Wyatt, I’m like the frustrated person who wants to know everything about the world, just give it to me, give it to me… I’m Val, because I’m terrified when I wake up in the morning, aren’t we all these days? I’m an extrovert and an introvert… there’s little bits of me in all of them.”

In closing, Ferencik commented, “I have this, I do have this feeling about, of awe, about the world. I’m just in love with, just the wonder that remains, the mysteries that remain, we have a simultaneous need for wonder and mystery and then this impulse to destroy it and that fascinates me.”

But I believe there’s plenty of mystery left in the world. And human beings need that. Human beings need to wonder.

Differences are not intended to separate, to alienate. We are different precisely in order to realize our need of one another.

Throughout the interview, Clink talked about growing up in the Texas Panhandle and elaborated on the various Texas locations in her stories, including Fredricksburg and Gruene. She also explained how she became a full time author and described the process she goes through when writing. In regards to editing, she said, “that’s the part I love, because then you’ve got the story written and now you get to go in and do your wordsmithing and take the things where you said, you know, he looks like this, and put in great metaphors and imagery and so that’s a lot more fun.” As far as the genre of her novels, Clink would classify her books as contemporary fiction or women’s fiction, often with a romantic element. “I like putting romance in the books, I just don’t want to guarantee that…”

If you are always trying to be normal, you will never know how amazing you can be.

Herman, who works with people from all over the professional spectrum, said “I think the reason they’re all coming to me is they all have problems to solve. Everybody has problems and they realize that yesterday’s solutions are not going to solve today or tomorrow’s problems.” She firmly believes that “the best things happen on the exit ramp of your comfort zone, and so by taking people out of, not fully out of, their comfort zone, but just going to the exit ramp, they’re going to see things differently, they’re going to communicate differently, and most importantly, they’re going to look at their existing resources and think of different ways to solve problems when they’re out of their everyday point A to point B life.”

Throughout the discussion, Herman described her use of abstract art in her trainings and also compared writing and publishing a book to having a baby. “You put the book out in the world, like a child, hoping that it’ll do some good out there and that you’ve given it everything you can give it to do the good out there in the world…”

Before we are doctors or lawyers or writers or podcasters, we are all human, and I tell people to default to that humanity in your problem solving and it can go a long way.

Rejoice! Our times are intolerable. Take courage, for the worst is a harbinger of the best.

Beginning with the first chapter, Skoloda writes about learning to trust your instincts, a prominent theme that runs throughout her book. In the memoir, she also delves into her other lessons such as doing your own research, preparing to speak up, knowing your medical history, getting ready for treatment, opening yourself up to kindness, and watching for miracles. For her, the miracles came in her life as butterflies. She started seeing them in the oddest places and they became a sign of hope for her to look out for and appreciate other everyday miracles.

Her final thoughts for those going through a health crisis is to be an advocate for your own health and try to be an active member of your medical team. In addition, don’t be afraid to get a second opinion. She said, “…second opinions often do change the course of what the treatment is, and oftentimes for the better so I think there is a real outcome based reason to do it, and I also just think it has to be the right fit for you. Trust your instincts, if there is something nagging at you that it just doesn’t feel right, then it’s not. Then there are other options out there. Don’t assume that people will be offended and if they are then maybe that’s not the right fit anyway.”

I started to collect categories of learning and put them into different buckets and then I started to notice some patterns developing.

Stories help others, so share yours.

You never know how strong you are until being strong is the only choice you have.