Martha Stewart’s best-selling books have graced my office library; I’ve devoured her numerous cooking shows; and have faithfully followed her professional journey…detours and all. For writers seeking to go the distance in the publishing industry, overcome obstacles and operate profitably, there are many career parallels and strategic lessons she provides.
Read MoreRather than give up a love affair with words, old writers, with decades of footprints in the book trade, simply change genres, refurbish stories, and stay delightfully crazy.
My falling in love with storytelling happened at nap time in my grandmother’s bed. It was some time in the year of 1949. She fell asleep in the midst of reading a story. I did not, and poked her with my elbow to get her voice going again, a voice honed on decades of reading the Bible aloud, with its old-world rhythms. Since my grandmother seemed to worry that I would be the first female in our family to go to prison, she dropped me off each Sunday in her church’s Children’s Class. There, I heard Bible stories that were older even than my grandmother, a realization that led me to my first profound thought: if stories could last so long, they must be something we need. Like air, food and water—or a good purse.
Read MoreWhat I hadn’t realized until recently was that the skill sets for writing and editing, so intertwined and yet so vastly different, can inform each other. Indeed, I’ve learned much about being a writer and writing from being an editor and editing, and vice versa.
Read MoreThis is my only-slightly-inspirational story for the world’s would-be writers out there. I can honestly say, “Believe in your dreams,” but make sure you’re ready to pull out your heart and stomp all over it a few times. Publishing your book is a series of amazing highs and devastating lows. Someone told me once—not only do you need to believe in your work, you need to bleed every word. Now, I finally understand, and as I’m mopping up the carnage—I’d like to share my gory details.
Read MoreIt’s fun to talk about how this year, in 2019, we’ll be writing every day and only taking breaks to market ourselves and our work on social media. It’s fun to talk about how this year, unlike all the other years, we’re going to read every classic we’ve been putting off, along with all the books by our friends and colleagues. (We’ll review all those books, too, and promote them, and not be jealous of the success of others… right?)
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