By Leslie Lindsay

An end of an era. But all endings are really beginnings, right?

Since 2013, I have been remarkably grateful and blessed to have spent so much time connecting with readers on Always with a Book. Each week I have presented very fine authors and titles–from smashing debuts to immediate bestsellers. This has been both a privilege and joy.

The website will remain, and you can always go back and re-read any author interview.

How do you do this?

Simple:

1. Have an author or title in mind? Go to the search field (home page, top right magnifying glass) and type in a few keywords. It will ‘take’ you right to where you want to go!
2. Head over to ‘Featured Authors’ and scroll through all of the…uh, featured authors…and peruse that way.
3. Find an author or a book you really love? Great! I aim to please. You can add it to your Bookshop.org storefront, GoodReads, Instagram, or wherever else you catalogue your virtual reads. If you feel so compelled to read a book because of one of these recommendations or author interview, can you give me a tag? Stuff like that totally makes my day.

Speaking of all that, that’s exactly where you can find me:

Instagram, Twitter, Facebook|Always with a Book, Facebook|Speaking of Apraxia, GoodReads, and Bookshop.org

You might be curious about where I’m going and what I’m doing.

Fair enough!

I’m still here, just in a slightly different capacity. I might do an Instagram reel about a book I really love, or maybe I’ll chat with an author in-person at a bookstore, or share something on another platform, like I’ve done with Donald Antrim’s book, ONE FRIDAY IN APRIL: A Story of Suicide & Survival (W.W. Norton, October 2021) and Laraine Herring’s A CONSTELLATION OF GHOSTS: A Speculative Memoir, which can be found at Hippocampus Magazine.

I’ll still be reading. And writing. And making art.

I have a book on submission. That means my (tireless and super-supportive) literary agent is trying to sell this darned thing. It WILL sell. It’s just a matter of when and to whom. To be honest, this process is killing me a little. It’s tedious and time-consuming, this quietly exposed vulnerability I’ve put myself in. In the meantime, I am writing essays and submitting short stories, collaging stuff, reading like mad, journaling, working on the next big project.

Plus, I am promoting and sharing things about my first book baby, Speaking of Apraxia: A Parents’ Guide to Childhood Apraxia of Speech, now in its 2nd, updated edition. And I even narrated the audiobook this past summer!

[You can get it from Penguin Random House.]

All of these tasks are fulfilling, but they take their toll. Writing is hard. It requires every bit of skill–creativity, thoughtfulness, precision, imagination, mechanics, stamina, rejection, promotion, self-doubt, and more.

But it’s a calling.

LOOKING BACK:

I think the very first author interview I featured was Caroline Leavitt in 2013. She has been a generous and enthusiastic supportive literary ‘mother,’ for many, including myself. In fact, I even worked with her on a developmental edit of my memoir-on-submission.

You can learn more about that memoir HERE.

But I quickly started talking with other authors, too. I believe my second major interview was Lisa Unger.

All told, I have interviewed nearly 700 authors, some more than once (I’m counting those twice/three times because each interview is unique). Others who have appeared multiple times:

Mary Kubica, Heather Gudenkauf, and Tammy Greenwood. Oh! And Shari Lapena and Gilly Macmillan [This is going to get out-of-hand because I am going to list everyone at the risk of forgetting someone…]

But, I’ve featured a ton of literary fiction, memoir, children’s books, non-fiction, poetry, short stories/collections, historical fiction, and more. It’s truly been such a ride! And I am so, so grateful.

Browse all books featured on Always with a Book since 2018 on Bookshop.org

LOOKING AHEAD:

I still have a couple author interviews up my sleeve! Old habits die hard. The lovely Heather Gudenkauf will be back in late January 2022 with her new–and maybe best yet–rural domestic thriller–THE OVERNIGHT GUEST (1/26/22). Perfect reading for those chilly winter days. And a sublime debut, THE INTANGIBLE by C.J. Washington, about a woman experiencing and pseudo pregnancy. And Diane Chamberlain’s THE LAST HOUSE ON THE STREET (St. Martin’s Press, January 2022) So, pop in for those.

There might be others, too, I am still working out how I will present these titles. Mary Laura Philpot’s memoir-in-essays, BOMB SHELTER (Atria, April 2022), and Gina Sorrell’s literary fiction, THE WISE WOMEN (Harper, April 2022) have caught my eye.

You can check out some of the books I am looking forward to reading in 2022 HERE.

In January, I will be taking some on-line writing classes and workshops–turning rejections into acceptances, memoir-in-snapshots, emotional resonance, etc. In March, I’ll be joining Joyce Maynard and a group of women memoir writers in Guatemala for a writing retreat, which I think will be a great experience.

I am so warmed and grateful you’ve spent so much time with me. It truly means the world.

Thank you, thank you!

Be well, be safe.

Warm wishes this holiday season.

ABOUT ME:

Leslie Lindsay is the creator and host of the award-winning author interview series, “Always with a Book.” Since 2013, Leslie, named “one of the most influential book reviewers” by Jane Friedman, ranks in the top 1% of all GoodReads reviewers and has conducted over 700 warm, inquisitive conversations with authors as wide-ranging as Robert Kolker and Shari Lapena to Helen Phillips and Mary Beth Keane, making her website a go-to for book lovers world-wide. Her writing & photography have appeared in various print journals and online, including Psychology Today, Mud Season Review, A Door = Jar, Mutha, Literary Mama, The Manifest-Station, among others. She is the award-winning author of SPEAKING OF APRAXIA: A Parents’ Guide to Childhood Apraxia of Speech, an audiobook narrated by Leslie from Penguin Random House. A former psychiatric R.N. at the Mayo Clinic, Leslie’s memoir, MODEL HOME: Motherhood, Madness, & Memory, is currently on submission with Catalyst Literary Management. Leslie resides in the Chicago area with her family.

You can read more about me, this book review/author interview gig HERE.