Today I talk with Linda Gartz, author of ‘Redlined: A Memoir of Race, Change, and Fractured Community in 1960s Chicago.’ She’s got some great tips for wrangling a mountain of family memorabilia into a STRUCTURED narrative. AND setting it against a compelling cultural background.
It was wonderful having the incomparable Maureen Muldoon as my first residency guest of 2024! Maureen is the author of ‘The Spiritual Vixens Guide to an Unapologetic Life’ and the memoir ‘Giant Love Song.’ She was kind enough to “throw together” this video review of her stay. Check it out! And apply for your spot …
This week’s chat features Jim Wilson, author of “Tuned In.” Find out why this book was one of my favorite editing projects of 2023!
My alarm was set for five a.m. but I was wide awake before it went off. I hadn’t slept much because I was too “excited”—excitement being what I’ve decided to call anxiety—about my live interview on Canadian morning television. My publicist had booked me on what she called “the Today show of Canada” to talk …
Last week I had a disturbing realization: I forgot to write my blog. I typically send it out on Wednesday or Thursday and it was Saturday before it even crossed my mind.
I’ve been sharing a blog every week for nearly three and a half years. There have been times when I’ve had to skip a week here or there, but that has always been a decision.
Tammy Letherer, the 9th Annual CWA Book of the Year winner for Indie Nonfiction, discusses the struggle and trials that come with writing and publishing a memoir. Her belief is that to be a writer, one must just write and not wait for the right time or circumstances. Writing and journaling and having constant practice makes you a writer.
A few years ago, I went to hear author and now presidential candidate Marianne Williamson speak. She was describing a conference she held on race relations in Los Angeles. She said that tension was rising in the room when a white man stood up and angrily addressed an African-American woman.
“We’ve heard about all of this injustice again and again!” he yelled. “This is not helping anything. Why can’t we move on?”
I’ve been working on a new novel, and I have to pause here, already, because just typing those few words is challenging.
I barely like to admit it, because once I say those words a barrage of qualifiers come crashing in. Can I say I’ve been working hard on a new novel? No. Never hard enough.
I don’t usually include photos in my weekly blogs, but this you just have to see to believe—at my house, we have been living in a sock crisis for months. How does this relate to your writing? The excuses you make about why you can’t find the time, or why your stories don’t actually matter, or how it’s fine to let your project limp along as a scrambled, disorganized mess, those have to stop.
👉 Enjoy dedicated writing space just steps from Lake Michigan
👉 Benefit from one-on-one developmental editing sessions