By Leslie Lindsay
A curated newsletter on the literary life, featuring ‘4 questions,’ reading & listening recommendations, where to submit, more
Leslie Lindsay|Always with a Book
~MUSINGS & MEANDERINGS~
Hello…July!
Will anyone even care?
Have you ever uttered this phrase to yourself–maybe out loud–about your writing?
Who am I kidding?! Of course you have.
“We work in the dark – we do what we can – we give what we have. Our doubt is our passion, and our passion is our task. The rest is the madness of art.”
— Henry James
So here’s the thing: YES. Someone will care.
Someone already does care.
Think of how interested we humans are in overhearing conversations at coffee shops or grocery stores. We crave story.
I think the key is to write with passion.
Write because you care. Write because you can’t imagine not writing.
Here’s another thing: how would you feel if you didn’t write the novel/memoir/collection/poem/thing and then…someone else wrote the exact same novel/memoir/collection/poem/thing (well, not exactly, but maybe your idea was scooped), what then?
This happened to me. I had a manuscript on submission. It wasn’t selling. I was getting to that point, that godawful breaking point, of realizing what everyone else was thinking: time to abandoned and start something new. But I was sort of tenacious [read: stubborn]
Then! I discovered a new book (e-book only, totally different form, genre, and concept), with the exact same title as my manuscript on submission. By a well-known author, to boot! I was devastated. I know this seems like small beans in the big scheme of things, but it really stung. I wallowed for days. Maybe a week. How dare this other author steal my title! How dare those editors reject my manuscript!
It took a good 8-9 months of some serious soul-searching to decide what to do about the non-selling manuscript. (There were other factors involved, not just this title issue). Do I start over? Re-name my project? Give up writing completely? Give up writing this story completely?
[You’ll be relieved to know I didn’t give up].
Here’s the thing: people do care. YOU care. One reader will connect. That reader will tell someone else. And another.
Sometimes [always] it is more about intrinsic motivation than external.
Question:
When the writing gets tough, how will you persevere? What will keep you going? Do you have a burning question you are attempting to discover the answer to? How will you feel if you were 90 years old and the novel/memoir/collection/poem/thing wasn’t a thing?
Respond here in a comment, or find me on Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook.
xx,
~Leslie : )
This issue of Musings & Meanderings is jam-packed with some really great stuff to keep your [writing and reading] summer off on the right track. Coaching, book recommendations, where to submit, reading recommendations, author interviews, recently published prose, and a quick 4 questions insights interview with debut author Andrew Michael on his new gothic thriller, STRAVE ACRE (Penguin Random House, July 4, 2023)…scroll down…English countryside, ancient farm, grief, and about to be a movie!
By the way, I do not get any ‘kick-backs’ or other kind of payment (in-kind, or otherwise) for mentioning these classes/workshops/books/individuals. Sharing because if helps me, maybe it’ll speak to you, too.
Some Writerly Things:
- Essayist Suzanne Roberts delves into the tough stuff: Making Stories out of Shame in this Lafayette Writers’ Studio Workshop taking place via Zoom in August, registration required, fee-based. Plus, get a load of that amazing cover!
- I love this piece by Julie Marie Wade, on the ‘secret class,’ one in which she was the only enrolled student and it took place on the silence floor of the library. Can you guess what she did? Yeah, I kinda dig that.
- This Writing From Photographs workshop with Suzanne Scanlon sounds really fascinating. It meets multiple times, over the course of several weeks starting August 1. Fun! But fee-based. Offered through Cleaver Magazine.
- How do the pros pitch podcasts? When–and how–should you? What if your book has been out for more than a year? Read these Podcast Pitching tips from Michelle Glogvac, the Podcast Matchmaker.
- Are you bored with the traditional writing group? Check out this new method, that might appeal. Maybe it means meeting with your writing group at your kitchen table, writing or reading (already published books) together for a specific amount of time just to get some quick feedback and validation.
- Will your non-fiction book project sell? Plus, the special considerations for memoir. This class is hosted by Jane Friedman, and she’s an excellent resource on the business of publishing. Fee-based.
New! Featured Author|Insights
Andrew Michael Hurley
STARVE ACRE: A Novel
“[Hurley] ably captured the vibe of the era’s demon-spawn novels like Rosemary’s Baby and The Exorcist. . . Top-shelf gothic-folk horror.”
—Kirkus (Starred Review)
An atmospheric and unsettling story of the depths of grief found in an ancient farm in northern England, soon to be a major motion picture starring Matt Smith and Morfydd Clark.
Leslie Lindsay:
Without responding in complete sentences, what would you say STARVE ACRE is about?
Andrew Michael Hurley :
Grief, desperation, the way that the supernatural might offer hope, the way that folklore persists.
Leslie Lindsay:
Where did you write STARVE ACRE ? Do you have any special writing routines or rituals? Do they change with each project, or remain constant over time?
Andrew Michael Hurley :
I have a writing room in the back garden and going there day after day is a ritual in itself. But I like to try and immerse myself in the settings I use for my novels. That way I can capture those places accurately on the page. If someone can say that ‘they felt like they were there’ after reading one of my books, then I feel as though I’ve done my job properly. For Starve Acre, I spent a lot of time walking over moorland, miles from anywhere.
Leslie Lindsay:
If you weren’t writing, you would be…
Andrew Michael Hurley : ‘
Probably hiking somewhere in the Scottish mountains.
Leslie Lindsay:
What book did you recently read that you can’t stop talking about?
Andrew Michael Hurley :
The book I can’t stop talking about at the moment is The Bay of Noon by Shirley Hazzard. Every sentence is exquisite.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Andrew Michael Hurley is based in Lancashire. His first novel, The Loney, was published in twenty languages, and won the Costa Best First Novel Award and the Book of the Year at the British Book Industry Awards. Devil’s Day, his second novel, was picked as a Book of the Year in five newspapers, and won the Encore Award.
- For more information, or to purchase a copy of STARVE ACRE, pop over to my Bookshop.org
Browse my Bookshop.org see what I’m reading in 2023, and other titles featured on Insights|Musings & Meanderings …and more!
You can find me, Leslie Lindsay, on Instagram for more bookish news, book unboxing reels, artsy flatlays, and book talks.
Some Readerly Things:
- Forbes magazine calls THIS BOOK the ‘most important business and parenting book of the year.”
- Ooh, this looks good…I’m always intrigued by stories of ‘what came before,’ land and displacement. This one has to do with Disney World when the land was ‘just’ orange groves. And it’s a memoir.
- I just read Deborah Levy’s newest novel, AUGUST BLUE (FSG, June 2023) and while I’m still deciding it it was a 4-star or 5-star read for me, I will say it’s ambitious and thoughtful–about self-sabotage and reinvention, being haunted by oneself. This interview in the NYT gives additional clarity.
- This piece in Orion by author/poet Ama Codjoe is devastatingly, brilliantly beautiful. It’s about soil and ancestors and so, so much more. Both Juneteenth and the 4th of July are holidays celebrating independence from oppressors. Guess which tugs at my heartstrings more?
- Book reviews live? Yes! Check out this offering, held at Prairie Path Books in Wheaton, Julie Andrews’s memoir, HOME: The Early Years performed by Jenny who has been impressing us all as a dramatic book reviewer: meaning she performs her own original interpretations of best-selling books (that is she reads the book and writes the 45-60 minute script) and then she becomes the characters — telling the real-life stories accompanied by Jeff Panko, a fabulous local pianist. She is not only entertaining but informative, too — she gets you thinking and talking about what you’ve seen and learned. Buy your tickets now, space is limited.
Some Recently Published Interviews, Prose, Etc.:
- A double-interview featuring Cassandra Jackson and Jasmine Brown and their respective books, THE WRECK: A Daughter’s Memoir of Becoming a Mother (Viking, May 2023) and TWICE AS HARD (Beacon Hill, February 2023) ran in Hippocampus Magazine. See how and why I chose to pair these two titles and my connection to the material.
- I had the honor and priviledge of chatting with Priscilla Gilman, author of the memoir, THE CRITIC’S DAUGHTER (W.W. Norton, February 2023 for The North American Review. We talk about Guess jeans (with ankle zippers!), being the responsible older sister, challenging parents, and more. Gilman is the daughter of renown literary agent Lynn Nesbit and Richard Gilman, Yale School of Drama professor and theater critic.
- This poem, CLOTHES ON THE LINE was published in Abandoned Mine and was inspired by my fascination with ancestors. It’s speaker is a young girl in a dreamy, almost flow-of-conscious voice.
- A hybrid piece, AMERSAND & EPHEMERA was published in the latest print issue (vol. 16) of DASH Literary: Futurisms, and it’s a gorgeous issue all around. It’s a bit of a centro in which I cobbled together titles from spines of books on a shelf into a cohesive memoir-poetry-catalog.
- This piece, MODEL HOME: A Study Under Compression, in On the Seawall, is something I am so proud of. It was conceived in a craft store when I wandered down the model train aisle. At home, I already had the moss and tiny house and vials. I wanted to depict something with words and photography that would spotlight my family falling into disarray…my mother’s mental illness, the ‘perfect’ home, the family divided. This was my answer. It’s my first text + image publication. Here’s a sampling:
- I am bowled over by the reception my poem, CREVASSE, received by Luke Johnson in the Spring 2023 issue of Ballast. Check out our dialogue about one another’s work HERE. Also, that landing page! Swooning.
- Two pieces of poetry, TRUNDLE and HISTORY OF PRESENT ILLNESS were published in Neologism Poetry Journal and both have to do with mental illness, one is particularly emotional; it has to do with my mother’s first psychotic episode when I was ten and Dad had to lock me in my room for safety.
- You can find some of my other poetry at Empyrean Literary Journal. This piece was conceived in a workshop at StoryStudio Chicago in which the prompt was to combine two totally different things with one’s childhood street. I chose my grandfather’s profession as stained-glass artist and the year 1989. The resulting piece is COLLAPSE.
- Thrilled to have this byline in LitHub! Here, I chat with 82-year-old poet Pattiann Rogers about her new collection, THE FLICKERING (Penguin Poets, April 2023).
- Speaking of Apraxia: A Parents’ Guide to Childhood Apraxia of Speech, 2nd edition (Woodbine House, 2021) through some online retailers, your local library, used bookstores (it’s now officially out-of-print), and the audio edition is downloadable (with additional PDFs, resources) through Penguin Random House.
There’s more to this newsletter. Keep scrolling.
What’s Obsessing Me:
- I’m definitely intrigued by this article in The Tablet, about a mother who died by suicide, written by her psychologist daughter. I guess you could say I am still obsessed with my own mother’s mental illness (which parallels many of the behaviors mentioned in this article) and her demise.
- Gearing up for my week working with the poet Victoria Chang at the Writer’s Workshop at Kenyon College.
- I’m equally engaged by this Madison, Wisconsin-based Arts & Literary Community, ALL (Art Lit Lab). Check it out.
What I’m Listening To:
My own voice. I’m trying to listen not just to my own writing voice but also that intuition thing….and the idea thatthere aresom e thing we ‘should’ be doing and what we are ‘meant’ to be doing…that is, if it’s meant for you, it will fall into place almost effortlessly, it will feel like a ‘no-brainer.’
You are reading Musings & Meanderings, a consistently inconsistent weekly newsletter about the literary life from Leslie Lindsay, and home of an archive of bestselling and debut author interviews. I’m also on twitter and instagram. I try to answer comments as best I can. Feel free to find my book suggestions on bookshop.org, and also check out the authors I’ve hosted in in-depth interviews HERE.
In the meantime, catch me on:
Reviewing books and talking about them with others on-line and in-person is one small way to engage with & support the literary community.
Thank you for letting me guide you on your bookish journey.
Let’s walk this bookish path together.
THANK YOU!!
Some of you have been reading my reviews, interviews, and meanderings for more than a decade now. That’s huge and I am so humbled. Thanks for being here.
More than 2,800 folks read Musings & Meanderings.
Wishing you much renewal & sunshine
Created by Leslie Lindsay. I’m a proud book nerd. Let’s connect on Instagram, and Twitter. See what I’m reading on Bookshop.org. Find my reviews & ratings on GoodReads. I’m also a Zibby Books Ambassador, part of the Riverherd with Riverhead Books, a proud supporter of the Between the Covers podcast hosted by David Naimon and produced thru Tin House, and an early reviewer of Penguin Random House titles. My book, SPEAKING OF APRAXIA: A Parents’ Guide to Childhood Apraxia of Speech (2021), is available in audio only by PRHaudio.
Learn more HERE.
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Leslie A. Lindsay 
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