All posts tagged: author interviews

MUSINGS & MEANDERINGS the host of podcast ‘The Only One in the Room,’ Laura Cathcart Robbins talks about her memoir on addiction, STASH; plus micro-memoir classes, visual writing, time management for the writer/creative, Story Studio happenings, Complete Sentence, and more

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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~ It’s Still February, Friends! Earlier this month, we talked a bit about tracking your writing and creative time. I shared these TIPS from Danielle Lazarin, originally published in Catapult Magazine. I made my own tracking sheet and wanted to share some of my results. Newsflash: writing is hard. Newsflash #2: writing isn’t just about writing. Writing and the creative life is about juggling all sorts of things–emails, deadlines, reading, consulting, learning, experimenting, revising, outreach, networking…you get it. Here’s my sheet: For each day of the month, I made a chart with various writing-related tasks down the side. You can probably do this in a Spreadsheet and make it so much prettier. I write all over the place and don’t always compose on a laptop, so I carry this ratty piece of paper around everywhere. What’s on it? Writing. Submissions/including seeking places to submit work. Pitching outside …

Musings & Meanderings: Residencies and Workshops, writing anywhere, writing fragmented memoirs, Rebecca Makkai on boarding schools and murders, and so much more

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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~ Welcome to February, Friends! Let’s just say January was a rough start to the year. Did you feel it, too? It felt like every-other-day was another hurdle, and it wasn’t even the weather! I’m not sure if there was something in the air, or what. But I will share that I took a Zoom class on writing your memoir that was hugely validating and supportive. Maybe it’s because the presenter told us what I was doing was the ‘key to unlocking’ narrative. Okay, it wasn’t just me, but her entire spiel. The idea? Fragments. Found objects, notes. Lists. Collaging. A mosaic. How does this all work in a book? Does it work in a book? How about lyrical essays? Found forms? A play with structure? Poetry? All of it. Yes, all of it. Why am I doing this? Will it work for you? It might. Here’s …

Musings & Meanderings: What writers need, where to submit, an archive of author interviews, book lists to tempt, building teen confidence, more

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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, Friends! I recently had dinner with my extended family. They don’t really ‘get’ the writing life. Maybe they think writers are all heads-in-the-clouds dreamy type people, or maybe they just don’t understand it, respect it/value it, but it got me thinking about what we–readers and writers–need, as a way to sustain our art. Let this be a wish list for you…now and in the New Year. We all need support. This doesn’t have to be financial, but that’s good, too! What I’m getting at is someone who says, “yep–I support this.” We all need time to think, because half (more?) of all writing is thinking. So clear the clutter in your mind. Meditate. Walk. Exercise. Journal. It’s never ‘wasted time.’ We all need the time to write. This could be a few minutes a day, a weekend, or however you determine it. Carving out a …

Musings & Meanderings: Is time linear? Does it fold over itself? What about time-travel? For real? In a book? Susen Edwards talks about that, plus her debut, WHAT A TRIP, plus the frenzy to the finish line of 2022, planning for the new year, more

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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, Friends! I don’t know about you, but I feel I have upped my normal frenzy to my fancy holiday, year-end frenzy. It can be a little overwhelming between work, kids, end-of-semester, prepping for the holidays, and more. I like busy. I might thrive best when I have a few spinning plates. Sometimes, though, those plates get a little full. And they all seem to be made of my grandmother’s fine china, delicate and fragile, should I drop one. Is it always crunch time? How do you manage? Is there a way to balance or pre-plan? Hey…I’ve got some tips for that in my obsessions section–and a workshop you may want to attend with Esme Weijun Wang. I just signed up! There’s another one I have my eye on, too (DailyOM has some really great offerings). Be sure you scroll to those offerings below. In the spirit of thinking …

MUSINGS & MEADERINGS: Why transitions are so hard, and how to ease the pain…plus, a children’s back-to-school book with author interview–hello–Christina Geist!…a fabulous gift idea, more

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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, Friends! Let’s talk about transitions for a moment. They can be equal parts exciting and terrifying, right? You can want a change, even go so far as to curate that change, and then when it comes, it’s hard, hard, hard. You get me? What about those changes you didn’t even ask for, but boom–here they are? Yeah, that too. And those other transitions–the ones you know are coming, didn’t really ask for, but you know…the seasons, the school year, a shift in your daily routine. Why the heck are they so hard? And what can we do when we ‘hit a wall?’ How can we embrace them? Clear the slate. For me, I like a little lead time. Maybe a day or two to ‘shift gears,’ mentally and maybe physically, too. The problem is, life happens fast. Sometimes we don’t have the space or time …

Musings & Meanderings: Caitlin Billings on the ‘construction of gender,’ her new mental health memoir, plus deconstructing flash, where to submit this June, being curious & varied

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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, Friends! Curiosity. That’s what a writer needs. She also needs varied life experiences. A break in routine. I tell you this because…well, it’s true for me, but but because it ought to be true for every writer. Here’s why: stagnancy doesn’t produce dynamic anything. So…are you… Exploring? Observing? Questioning? Doodling? Day-dreaming? Remember when you were a kid, maybe 4 years old or so, and well-meaning adults asked, “So, what do you want to be when you grow up?” I mean, we start early with this. Guess what?! I still don’t know!!! Lately, we’ve been taking our daughter on college visits. They all want to know what ‘school,’ or ‘major’ she’s going to select. She loves (and is good at) lots of things. So, how to narrow it down? Does she need to know? No. That’s the beauty of being inquisitive and multi-interested. Our ideas and …

Musings & Meanderings: Lisa Solod on her new book, SHIVAH, about memory, mothers, and Alzheimer’s; how phones are draining our creativity, sensitive humans, where to submit, THE UGLY CRY, handling rejections, apraxia book discount

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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, Friends! Have you got a sensitive human in your life? I do. At least two and they are both teenagers. One is my daughter, the other is not. Being a teenager is complex enough, a totally fraught time. It feels often like there is no skin on our body, everything exposed. There is a tremendous amount of self-sabotaging going on, external forces, uncertainty, and more. Heck…the more I think about this, the more it dawns on me that this is almost exactly how a writer feels when we put our work into the world, even if it’s not published. Just having a friend or instructor read our work can be a tough thing. What’s one to do? Keep growing, keep being open to feedback and listen. Is this easy? No. Neither is being a teenager or an adult or a writer. How’s it going? Respond …

Musings & Meanderings: Best places to read this summer–outside, plus being a Missouri girl in the North, my mother and cicadas, author interviews, how we can help the folks in Texas, more

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By Leslie Lindsay A curated newsletter on the literary life, featuring ‘4 questions,’ a mini-author interview, reading & listening recommendations, where to submit, more Leslie Lindsay|Always with a Book ~MUSINGS & MEANDERINGS~ Hello, Friends! It’s my favorite time of the year. Wait–no, that’s kind of a lie. My real favorite time of the year is fall, but reading-outside-season is also high on my list. It started years ago…summers growing up in St. Louis. Sure it was hot, but I logged lots of reading hours on the deck, at the pool, in the lawn chair. It got me thinking about places I love to read, now that we can…you know, be outside with a book. Hammock on the back porch. I mean, is there anything better than a gentle breeze, the hammock swaying slightly and a book? I think not. Maybe: a nap and ice cream. Don’t have a back porch? How about a hammock strung between two trees? I recently saw some folks doing this at a local park. You might even consider purchasing a …

Musings & Meanderings: Leslie Kirk Campbell talks about her debut collection in our ‘4 Questions’ chat; hint: memory, time, bodies. Plus, how to pick your creative project, mental health awareness, where to submit, links to interviews with Maud Newton, Kim Adrian, and new CNF

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By Leslie Lindsay A curated newsletter on the literary life, featuring ‘4 questions,’ a mini-author interview, reading & listening recommendations, where to submit, more Leslie Lindsay|Always with a Book ~MUSINGS & MEANDERINGS~ Hello, Friends! Folks always wonder how to know if they’re making the right choice creatively when there are so many possibilities. I get it. There are a million ways a project could go, a million first lines, each offer a unique structure, too. We must move past indecision and lean into our work. Choose your project. Choose your ideas. Chose your sentences. Choose your ending. It’s not easy. Did anyone say it would be easy? They were wrong. How’s it going? Respond here in a comment, or find me on Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook. xx, ~Leslie : ) There’s more to this newsletter…keep scrolling! What I’m Distracted By This really resonated… “[My wife] was a teaching assistant for kids with disabilities and they had put a butterfly sanctuary in their classroom. … She said that in order for the butterflies to learn how to fly they …

Creative-Care is Self-Care: Insights Gleaned from my Time in Guatemala, plus what I’m working on, upcoming interviews, recently published fiction, more

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~WHAT I LEARNED IN GUATEMALA~ I recently returned from a writing workshop/retreat in Guatemala. Let me just say this: the scenery was stunning. The location and people were warm, colorful, and in most cases: inspiring. Reflecting on my time there has generated this list of things I wanted to be sure to share. The idea of a retreat is to: Renew, recharge, reconnect. We’ve been running ninety-to-nothing for a long time now. We’re pandemic-weary, covid-fatigued, and anxious to connect. A retreat should afford us the opportunity to do that. Self-care might be a big buzz word these days, but… What about creative care? We must take care of our creative person, the vessel who does all of this inventing. My Reiki therapist recently noted my sacral area (the seat of creativity) was ‘ping-pinging’ with activity, but was eclipsed by something dark–a sheathe. That’s a problem. That darkness…well, it needs to be lightened. Her suggestion? Meditation. It doesn’t have to be long or involved. 5-10 minutes is all. A deep breath. A few moments alone. Releasing …