Send us a text

In this episode,  I talk to Shannon Sanders about her linked short story collection, Company. We talk about:

- writing your own murder mystery parties
- writing through your feelings about others' offhand comments
- signing with an agent a week before COVID lockdown
- persisting in your writing through the birth of twins
- finishing your book while raising three children under three
- resisting, as a writer of short stories, the pressure to turn them into a novel
- trusting your own aesthetic judgement
- toddler responses to mom's book
- LeVar Burton!

You can find Company here.
Also check out The Office of Historical Corrections and Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool Self by the author Danielle Evans who is mentioned in the episode ( Shannon  is a fan! ). 

Send us a text

In this episode, I talk to Christina Consolino about her most recent novel, The Weight We Carry.

We discuss:
- NaNoWriMo
- Prioritizing writing
- The oozing guts of dead things
- Controlling what you can and letting go of what you can't
- The idea that not all characters are capable of substantial change
- Publishing with a small, independent press
- Trusting your book will find an audience

You can find Christina's novels The Weight We Carry and Rewrite the Stars here! 

Send us a text

'Burn charts' for writing
Linking essays the way one links chapters in a novel
Writing and mom guilt
Boundaries (and the lack thereof) as they relate to gender socialization
Letting a manuscript die
Sarina Bowen
#AmWriting podcast
What Fresh Hell podcast
Zibby Books
Andrea Robinson — developmental editor 

When Did I Get Like This
Jenny Nash's  Blueprint for a Nonfiction Book 

Buy Happy to Help here
Learn more about Amy Wilson here
Follow Writing Stories here 

Send us a text

Elizabeth Hilborn tells the story of her memoir Restoring Eden. Along the way she covers:

Moving from scientific writing to memoir
Notes and research for nonfiction
Honey bees, pesticides, and environmental degradation
Mindfulness and writing
Jill Rothenberg - editor
Dinty W Moore and the river of the story

Find out more about Dr. Elizabeth Hilborn here
Buy Restoring Eden here 

Send us a text

Editing an essay collection
Organizing an essay collection
Literary Mama
C-sections
Blurbs
Working with mothers
Julie Stevenson (agent)
Labor Day (collection of birth stories including one from Cheryl Strayed)
Writing your spouse (or not)
launch parties
The Experiment press

Buy My Caesarean here
Learn more about Amanda here
Follow Writing Stories here 

Send us a text

The key to being able to write a lot

YADDO and writing 50 pages a day (????)

What makes a 'real' writer

Writing groups that last 40 years

In-person author events and signings

"The sad wilderness of selves calling out for publication"

Launch pad from The Authors Guild

Getting an editor on Reedsy

Learn more about Terese here
Buy The Long Swim here
Buy Roxy and Coco here
Follow Writing Stories here

Send us a text

In this episode Jaclyn tells the story of Late Air.
Along the way she covers:

goal orientation
Running
Driftless Literary
upcoming course on navigating the indie publishing landscape
David Ryan (and his revision ideas)
the denial of pain
Marya Spence

Buy Late Air here
Learn more about Jaclyn here

Send us a text

In this episode Vera Blossom tells the story of How To Fuck Like A Girl.
Along the way she covers:

Gender/genre crossover
Diary writing
Dopamine Press
Queer zine culture
Building a queer utopia
How great editors are like spiritual teachers and therapists
Publishing as a trans writer in today's political climate
PEN America fellowship and Tanaïs

Learn more about Vera here

Buy How to Fuck Like A Girl Here

Send us a text

In this episode, Jessica E. Johnson tells the story of Mettlework. Along the way she covers: 
Agent troubles 

Her poetry collection Metabolics

A need for more poetry about motherhood

Connections between form, content, and 'material conditions of creation'  in her work 

Gathering your mentor texts 

The inheritance of motherhood and the self-sacrificing mother myth

Mary Ardery's review of her book 

Emma Copley Eisenberg and Housemates

Learn more about Jessica here 

Buy Mettlework here

Send us a text

In this episode Polly tells the story of Look How Happy I'm Making You.
Along the way she covers:
- When your conversation partner for your book launch cancel at the last minute
- Bathttub stories
- Going to auction
- Keeping your expectations low
- Making Shapely Fiction by Jerome Stern
- Finding an agent in Poets and Writers

Find out more about Polly here
Buy Look How Happy I'm Making You here