Instead of an interview with Letting Go author Dr. Carolyn Wolf-Gould, below is an excerpt of an article from The Guardian about her transgender health center. You can read Carolyn Wolf-Gould's essay - "A Prayer for Lost Things" - in _Letting Go: An Anthology of Attempts How a tiny city in New York became a beacon for transgender healthcareDr Carolyn Wolf-Gould has built a center that treats more than 300 transgender people from across the north-east – and many travel 50 or 100 miles to see her Read the full article at The Guardian Four times a year, Jill Williams, 62, climbs into the cab of her 2010 Toyota pickup and heads from Pittsfield, Massachusetts, to a doctor’s office two-and-a-half hours away. Williams, who is transgender, has grown used to the drive. With the majority of medical professionals knowing little about how to provide care to transgender people, countless trans individuals across the country face incredibly restricted health care options. Williams is one of thousands of people willing to go far – usually to a major city – to see a doctor who has experience in transgender health care, or at least is not openly hostile. But Williams isn’t headed for a city. And in a stark illustration of how sparse her options are even here, in one of the most populous parts of the north-east, her route bypasses major metropolitan areas for an unlikely haven at the foot of the Catskill mountains: Oneonta, New York.This is where Dr Carolyn Wolf-Gould, a longtime family doctor, has spent years tailoring her practice for trans patients. From a few individuals in the late 2000s, she has built a center that treats more than 300 transgender people from across the region. Many come from the hamlets that dot the surrounding foothills. But the majority of Wolf-Gould’s patients trek from Albany, Schenectady and their suburbs – a thriving region that is nevertheless hurting for health care options and is not short on bigotry. “These patients are so marginalized, and they deal with so much discrimination and abuse, that we have people coming from four, five, six hours away,” Wolf-Gould said in a recent interview. Her office, in a small hospital off a two-lane highway, offers them hormone therapy, counseling, a point of coordination with their other doctors and referrals for patients wishing to transition with surgery. But she also treats dozens of trans people who aren’t medically transitioning and don’t require her specialties so much as sensitivity. Some patients, she said, will drive a hundred miles to avoid getting another mammogram in their hometown. There is Kate Terrell, 51, who went to the emergency room for lung failure only to undergo an unrelated pelvic exam by a nurse. “I had one woman hand me a breast exam card and say, ‘Here, this should make you feel more feminine,’” Terrell said. Despite living close to five major hospital centers and dozens of endocrinologists, who specialize in hormone therapy, Terrell drives more than an hour for Wolf-Gould to manage her estrogen levels. Rhonda Calhoun became a patient after her doctor of two decades said she would need to “see God” before he would treat her again. She drives two hours both ways for Wolf-Gould to perform her annual checkups. In fact, Terrell says she hardly knows a single trans person in Albany, out of hundreds, who doesn’t drive the 80-some miles to see Wolf-Gould. “You do it when you don’t have any other choice,” Calhoun said. “You’d think being around the Syracuse area there would be more doctors that would see a need. But as soon as you mention ‘transgender’, they say they don’t have anyone.” Their experiences are far from unusual. In one survey after another, trans people report hostility and ignorance in doctors’ offices at disturbing rates. Read the full article at The Guardian
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If you haven't had a chance to read this fascinating book, now is a good time to pick up a copy. The Lost Town: Bringing Back Trochenbrod by Avrom Bendavid-Val will be FREE in EBook from April 27th through April 30th. This is an important story to be read, remembered, and passed on. It is a young adult book for readers of all ages. As on reader commented, "it is an incredible, unbelievable, true story . . ." About the book : Trochenbrod was a bustling commercial center of nearly 6,000 people, all Jews, hidden deep in the forest in Northwest Ukraine. It thrived as a tiny Jewish kingdom unnoticed and unknown to most people, even though it was “the big city” for surrounding Ukrainian and Polish villages. The people of Trochenbrod vanished in the Holocaust, and soon nothing remained of this vibrant 130-year-old town but a mysterious double row of trees and bushes in a clearing in the forest. Avrom Bendavid-Val makes Trochenbrod’s true story accessible, enjoyable, and memorable for young readers. The Lost Town follows his adventures while uncovering the lost history of the magical place where his father was born and raised. An imagined Trochenbrod was the setting for Jonathan Safran Foer’s novel, Everything is Illuminated , and the movie by the same name. Read more about the book and the author's search. What readers are saying: "I found this book to be fascinating!! To be able to learn of others affected by the war at that time was unbelievable. I always learned about what I thought by to be 'all of it' but, reading this book opened my eyes to so many others who had to endure and overcome. I will definitely reread this book and my son 'the history buff' will definitely find this book fascinating also! "The triumph of this book is that the author does manage to rediscover and tell the story of the lost town, and the lost people of that town, through his research and contacts with the few who lived to remember. The triumph here is in remembering. In restoring what evil attempted to obliterate from history and from the hearts and minds of all people. This book bears witness to the worth of human life, human struggle to survive against all odds. With all the horrors it records, the ultimate message is one of hope and redemption. Certainly a worthwhile read!" "His stories from the former villagers, diaries, and historical events are pulled together marvelously to paint a full picture of not only village life, but the reasons for the decisions that shaped their daily lives." Learn more about the documentary, Lost Town, based on Avrom Bendavid-Val's search,
at 7th Art Releasing. Joan Scott is a British-born writer. Her literary career began when she penned her first novel at ten, won first prize for an essay on Paris at fifteen, and believed she was a novelist. When reality set in, and the rent was due, she honed her writing skills with UK advertising agencies. Inspired to succeed in the creative world, she headed for corporate America and dove into international marketing communications. Advanced strategic marketing courses from Harvard’s extension program, led her to develop promotion workshops in eight countries. Paid to travel the world on sampans, helicopters and high-speed trains, she published industrial and tourism articles and focused on completing her first novel, Who is Maxine Ash? It features two flat-mates trying to survive during London's turbulent Swinging Sixties, and how an imposter changes their ordinary lives. Joan lives near Boston and summers on Block Island, R.I., with her brilliant husband who, as a design engineer, knows that two creative minds need space, that it’s always his turn to do dishes, and never to complain when it’s crunch time to edit early drafts. He is a reluctant star in her future blog book and her star partner. You can read why relinquishing paper can be devastating to a writer, in her essay THE PAPER ROOM in Letting Go: An Anthology of Attempts – editor M.E. Hughes. She can be contacted at joanscott.uk1@gmail.com and followed on Facebook and Twitter. "Ideas are everywhere in my daily life from snow shoveling, to computer frustrations, bra buying with teenagers, women’s restrooms, bottle caps, and warning labels. Social changes, unrealistic expectations, life and death situations, childhood experiences, news stories, and exploring hope, love, dependency, obsession, and fear, are fuel that fire my creativity." As a writer of fiction, did you find it harder to write nonfiction? Not for me, because I wrote nonfiction marketing copy during my corporate life. Once I picked the subject of “paper” for my essay on the topic of “letting go,” I analyzed what it meant to me and ran with it to tell a story to which writers and readers could relate. What I hadn’t realized, or admitted to myself, was that hoarding paper had become an obsession. Everyone else could see it, except for me. Paper became my safety net instead of trusting the computer memory, so my attempt to let go of paper is an ongoing predicament. Fiction is a much bigger canvas. You have to plot a whole world around an incident or passion for the chosen genre and develop detailed and conflicted characters to show the story you want to tell. I’ve yanked characters back into the novel when they’ve wandered off and dumped a hundred pages of brilliant text, which is hard. You agonize for years over those characters, breathe life into them and become their friend. In my current novel, they are a part of my daily life, to the extent I find myself buying gifts for them which is why it is necessary to switch to nonfiction occasionally! What do you enjoy most about writing? The luxury of indulging in the craft. As a child, I couldn’t wait to go to bed early every night to create lives for the characters featured on my wallpaper. Those vignettes became my favorite dreams and stories. Writing is difficult, painful and an emotional journey but so joyful for me there is nothing I prefer more. I am always writing in my head and scribbling on pieces of paper! For me, the anticipation of writing is like opening a box of decadent treats to discover what is delicious. Releasing the first draft, line-by-line editing, word-by-word changes and finding the perfect word. Then there’s the second draft, revisions and tweaking, and so on until the ultimate satisfaction is that you’ve done the best you can in creating a piece of literary art for yourself with hope of sharing it with others when you are published. If you are not, you have had enormous pleasure on the journey of the craft. Where do you get your ideas? Ideas are everywhere in my daily life from snow shoveling, to computer frustrations, bra buying with teenagers, women’s restrooms, bottle caps, and warning labels. Social changes, unrealistic expectations, life and death situations, childhood experiences, news stories, and exploring hope, love, dependency, obsession, and fear, are fuel that fire my creativity. What are you working on? I am currently abandoning my “little darlings” (phrases I love) and cutting chapters to reduce my psychological suspense novel, Who Is Maxine Ash? It has been a long process and I am stuck as it is so hard to let go. Martha Hughes, Maureen Brady and a UK editor have spent hours editing and doctoring the entire manuscript but I need another pair of eyes to reduce it for publication. For light relief, I turn to creating blogs for my blog book. Other darlings in my life are toddlers to teens who have inspired me to create a non-fiction project for parents, grandparents and child-minders on feeding children’s daily lives with a total creative experience. We Don’t Just Go Places, We Experience Them, is the working title. I mentioned the project at a workshop recently and a new grandmother wanted to know where she could buy the book, now! I have other readers who’ve been patiently waiting in the wings so I am focused on completion before the new grandmother’s two-year-old grandchild goes to college! What has been the most surprising about learning your craft? That writing is adaptable, the avenues are endless and the big surprise is that Americans seem to love my subtle British humor. It flavors my novel and my blogs in “When Life Gets in the Way of Writing the Great British Novel.” Whenever I am frustrated or faced with life-threatening situations, and wherever I am (even in an ICU), I put pen to paper and use humor as a release. The test is when strangers tell me “you crease me up” or that I am “hilarious.” That is the best applause for my ears. Do you think workshops have helped you become a better writer? Yes, definitely. One writes in a vacuum and even if one belongs to a writing group; workshops bring a fresh perspective when one’s work is reviewed by strangers. I find the exercises, new techniques and feedback are amazing tools for learning, editing and improving my writing. What I love about Martha Hughes and Maureen Brady’s Peripatetic Workshops is the assembled wealth of talent, and that I get to travel with writers from different cultures in pursuit of the craft. What could be better? It makes me feel part of a great supportive network when I escape from the isolation of writing, especially when I am back home and online, and able to keep in contact with the wonderful writer friends I have met. The questions keep coming up in forums, discussion groups, and conversations with authors:
Quick answer #1: Yes. I think they do. They’re great for exposure, reaching readers we’d never reach on our own. As part of a larger marketing plan, they keep things moving. (Because, let’s be honest, promoting a book can get kind of tedious and sometimes you hit dead spots when you don’t know what to do next.) Even if they don’t increase sales. Or gain new reviews. Quick answer #2 for those who think it isn’t really “indie” unless you do everything yourself and all author services are a scam: Yes. It's worth hiring someone. While it is possible to set up a tour yourself, if you don’t have the time, the inclination, the street team or the fan base, it’s much easier to turn to people who know what they're doing. (As I'm writing this there's a new post by Fauzia Burke on Jane Friedman's blog about contacting bloggers on your own with lots of good information. It reminds me that often the bloggers who sign up for tours aren't the ones I might have thought would be interested. Another reason I'm grateful for help.) Sure, there are way too many author services that don’t deliver and aren’t worth the cost, but I’ve been fortunate to find three book blog tour organizers who not only are worth their fees and deliver what they promise, but also are a pleasure to work with. [Note: I’m not a relative or an affiliate of any of these, won’t receive a kickback or a discount. I wanted to pass along our experience.] I also wanted to get some perspective from the organizers. I’m including their answers at length because in the middle of figuring out marketing strategies and quantifying results, it’s nice to be reminded there are people who are in this for the love of books and reading. Three Worth Trying 1. Our latest tour – Goddess Fish Promotions We’ve just completed a 12-stop blog tour for Letting Go: An Anthology of Attempts edited by M. E. Hughes. This one was a little tricky - the book has contributions from 30 authors. We wanted to give the authors the most exposure with the least involvement on their part, working within a tight budget. We’ve tried other tours in the past. Some with author interviews, some with only the book title, cover, and blurb. This time, we chose to go with excerpts. Kudos to Marianne and Judy at Goddess Fish Promotions and the 12 bloggers who signed on. Coordinating 12 different excerpts and author bios wasn’t easy. Was it successful? We think so. The authors who were able to participate enjoyed fielding comments. It’s worth nothing that on the days the authors got involved there were more comments than on the days when they didn’t participate. We sold a few books, but that’s hard to measure since the book was selling well before the tour. And it was Tax Week. [Note to self: Don’t try selling books the second week of April.] This particular tour involved a giveaway – a $10 Amazon gift card. More than 850 people signed up. That’s 850 people who now know about the book. Were they all planning to use that gift card to buy Letting Go? Probably not, but you never know. During the second half of the tour, we lowered the EBook price. We realize now we should have done that from the start. But, to be honest, it didn’t seem to make a difference. (See note about Tax Week.) We also used Goddess Fish Promotions for two other tours, The Lost Town: Bringing Back Trochenbrod by Avrom Bendavid-Val, and Sunset at Rosalie by Ann L. McLaughlin. Neither got the kind of response Letting Go did, but we got some exposure. Why Did We Choose Them? We’d seen them recommended on several sites we trusted. We were intrigued by the name. We liked the choice of tours and the price points - we needed to spend less than $100.00. We like using tour organizers because they handle the logistics – creating a banner and a header for the book tour, signing up bloggers, posting the schedule. Even with an excerpt tour, authors still need to do some of the work – supplying materials, in this case that meant 12 different excerpts; bios; social media links. And once the tour starts, they ask that the authors check in at each stop to thank the host. I’ve read about tours where the hosts forget to post or post late, where the organizers don’t stay involved. For the three tours Goddess Fish ran for us, the hosts posted on time, the organizers promoted each stop on social media. All in all, it was very well organized. About Goddess Fish Promotions Goddess Fish Promotions has been around since 2008. It was started by an author – Marianne Arkins – after she created her own tour. Her partner, Judy Thomas is also an author and worked as an editor for a small press. Here are their answers to a few questions: How many bloggers participate? We have around 400 - 500 tour hosts on our list. Some are very active and hosts tours for us several times a week, others only host a few times a year. How many tours you run each year? Last year we ran approximately 700 tours. It varies year to year, but that's probably a decent average :-) How long does it take to set up a tour? Getting everything organized varies based on the type of tour selected by the author. The book blasts are easiest because they are all promo or review stops and all run the same day. We require the shortest lead time for those. Next would be Blurb Blitzes and Excerpt tours, followed by the Review Only tour, then the Name Before the Masses and Standard tour or Full Service tour. The more we have to do (and the more the author has to do i.e. complete interviews or guest posts) the longer the tour takes to organize. Any idea why these bloggers participate? This would probably be a question better posted to the blogger hosts, but I imagine it's mainly threefold: these hosts love books so want to help authors in any way they can. They can select books that appeal to them for reviewing and get those free of charge. Also, some hosts have advertising or use affiliate links on their site, so the more traffic they receive the more that pays off as well. Mainly, though, I think it's just sheer love of the written word. That trumps the others. Do you think blog tours work? I guess it depends on what you're looking for, ultimately. We've had many authors tell us their sales increased a lot, while others received only a small bump in sales or none at all. Obviously, sales are one thing authors desire as a result from the tour, but there are other benefits: exposure to potential readers, building a fan base (we really stress marketing yourself, the author, more than the book - building reader loyalty is a great thing and will lead to more and more sales as you continue to release books), increasing your following on various social media sites, increasing newsletter subscribers and getting reviews. All of these things help you grow as an author. A virtual tour, run properly, can help with all those things. Mariane and Judy http://www.goddessfish.com http://www.goddessfishpromotions.blogspot.com Promotional needs at an affordable price. Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GoddessFishPromotions Twitter: https://twitter.com/GoddessFish Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/goddessfish/ Google+: https://plus.google.com/+Goddessfish You’re right. I should have asked about the name. 2. Past tours – Pump Up Your Book Pump Up Your Book is another tour organizer that came highly recommended on several sites. We first approached them with a different kind of challenge – Landfall by Joseph Jablonski was published posthumously. Without being too crass, our question was whether it was possible to do a book tour without the author. Dorothy Thompson, the founder of Pump Up Your Book, responded immediately and enthusiastically. Yes. We could do reviews and book spotlights, no author involvement required. With more than 800 bloggers on their email list, more than 8000 followers on Twitter and more than 6000 Facebook followers (all genuine), she was sure she could make it work. And she did. Six of the eleven sites even offered reviews. Again, the hosts all kept to the schedule and Dorothy stayed involved throughout. We also used Pump Up Your Book for You Won’t Remember This, Kate Blackwell’s short story collection. This was as close to ideal as it gets. Kate’s a very fine writer; she was willing to answer interview questions and do a few guest blog posts. Kate’s answers and guest posts could make a book on their own. (We reposted one of them here.) And the reviews were thoughtful. (If you’ve seen enough readers struggle with their disappointment that short stories are in fact short, then you know that thoughtful reviews count for a lot.) About Pump Up Your Book Dorothy Thompson started Pump Up Your Book in 2007. Since then, they’ve conducted around 3,000 tours. They've won several first-place awards from Preditors and Editors as the best book promotion site. Dorothy writes a syndicated relationship column for online and print publications including eNotAlone.com, MindBodySpirit Magazine, Singles Café, SinglesStop, Into the Mystic and other New Age publications. She also writes articles for the Eastern Shore News and The Daily Times. Her upcoming book, Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Soul Mates And Were Not Afraid to Ask, will be released in 2016. The team includes Tracee Gleichner, vice president, an experienced book marketer and publicist, who also does branding and blog tour coordinating for several publishers. And Kathleen Anderson as tour coordinator. Like the other tour operators mentioned, they offer a wide range of services, including a review service. And they provide all the marketing materials for the book tours. Pump Up Your Book 3. Our first tour – Book Partners in Crime Promotions If you’re lucky enough to have a genre book, something with a definite niche and devoted readers, it’s a whole lot easier to target your audience. For JP Bloch’s Identity Thief we turned to Book Partners in Crime Promotions. Can’t remember exactly how we found them, but I’m very glad we did. It was our first time trying a book tour and our first time publishing a psychological thriller. They were patient with all our newbie concerns about sharing files and offered good advice on what to do, like being sure we had the book posted on Goodreads. Stuff we know now but didn’t know then. They put together a media kit, along with everything the hosts would need for a Facebook post, and a teaser based on a short excerpt. And, as you would expect, they lined up hosts who were dealing with the audience we wanted to reach. This one included a giveaway of three books. Wish I’d kept better notes so I’d know how many signed up. What I do remember is that we were very pleased and so was the author. About Book Partners In Crime Promotions Margaret Hughes and Delene Yochum started Book Partners In Crime as a way to help out authors they’d met online. Here are their answers to a few questions: How many bloggers participate? We reach out to over 600 bloggers and reviewers for each tour and participation does vary based upon interests and availability. For tours that don't have a specific number of stops specified, we normally have between 35 - 45 hosts promoting a tour. This can be influenced by the genre as well as what day(s) a tour runs, as well as what kind of following an author may have (those with active street teams will often have many more participants since the street team members will participate.) How many tours do you run each year? Last year we ran over 100 tours, ranging from 1-day events (cover reveal, pre-order blitz, release day blitz, sale blitz, book blitz) to multi-day events that lasted from 3 - 5 days (review tours and blog tours.) We also did one event that ran for an entire month. How long does it take to set up a tour? We like to spend some time with an author to find out exactly what they are looking for, so it can take a couple days to determine what type of tour and the dates that would work best. Once we have the type of tour and dates set, we can gather all the information we need to set the tour up and start the sign-up process, which usually takes a few days. The time frame may be a bit longer if the author is still finalizing information for their book. Even if an author doesn't have all the information ready, we encourage them to contact us to get on our calendar - and often times we can start sign-ups even if the author doesn't have everything for the book in the final stages. This is especially true for any tour that will offer a review option since time is always a factor for reviewers - the longer the lead time we can give often results in more reviewers for a book. We can start sign-ups and send the review copy out once it is ready to go. Any idea why these bloggers participate? I think there are many reasons why bloggers participate in tours but in the end it really just comes down to a love of reading and the desire to help spread the word about great books and authors to as many people as possible. Whether it is a favorite author you want to help succeed or a new author who is just starting and needs help to get noticed, as a blogger our goal is to share our love of reading. The ability to review a book before it releases can also be a bonus. It also means a lot to a blogger when an author interacts with them by commenting on a post or sharing the bloggers links on social media. Since most bloggers are always looking for their next favorite read, signing up for tours allows them to learn about new authors and books they may not have heard about otherwise. Do you think blog tours work? To answer whether blog tours work depends on what you expect from a blog tour. Will a blog tour alone help you become a NYT bestselling author? Probably not. But as part of a holistic marketing and promotion plan, a blog tour can help an author get their name in front of an audience that will potentially buy their books - which is the first step in making a sale. There are many strategies authors should use to market and promote their works ranging from sales and promotions to book signings and giveaways, and a blog tour can work nicely in any marketing plan. Margaret & Delene Book Partners In Crime Promotions ~Our Passion is Your Book~ Website ~ Facebook What's great about doing a blog tour for an anthology is that every day a different author and a different essay will be featured. It''s also fitting that this international group of authors will be hosted by an international group of bloggers. You can follow along here: (the links will only be live on the day indicated) April 4: Rogue's Angels (Julie Strong) April 5: Around the World in Books (Roz Kuehn) April 6: Readeropolis (Emily Tsokos Purtill) April 7: BooksChatter (Joan Scott) April 8: Room With Books (Joe Levine) April 8: The Reading Addict (Martha Ellen Hughes) April 11: Laura's Interests - review (George P. Farrell) April 12: It's Raining Books (Marione Malimba Namukuta) April 13: Natural Bri - review (Elizabeth Wohl) April 14: Edgar's Books (Nilo T. Alvarez) April 15: Ali - The Dragon Slayer (Sue Parman) April 15: Deal Sharing Aunt (Evalyn Lee) Hope you enjoy it! M.E. Hughes has guided and edited a small army of writers since receiving her MFA in creative writing from Bennington College in 1986. The joy of experiencing the thriving artistic community that existed at Bennington at that time, under the leadership of Nicolas Delbanco and the late Richard Elman, led her to start her own summer writing program, the nonprofit Peripatetic Writing Workshop, Inc. in 1991. The Peripatetic meets each winter and summer and lives up to its name by meeting in the United States and abroad, to date in Sicily and Italy, Guatemala and Ireland. She has taught creative writing at New York University for many years and is also a freelance book doctor/editor. She has published two nonfiction books and the novel, Precious In HIs Sight (Viking Penguin). A native of New Orleans, Hughes grew up in New Iberia in the heart of Cajun country. You can read "Isolation" by M. E. Hughes in Letting Go: An Anthology of Attempts "I think workshops help one see the 'holes' in one's work. Colleagues in a workshop make you see that some things you were sure you had written down are not there at all." Note: Even though in the photo she's wearing one hat, M. E. Hughes wore two for Letting Go.. She's both the editor of the anthology and a contributing author. This interview asked her questions about both roles. As an Editor . . . What inspired you to do this book? Two things:
How long did it take to create it? I had the idea as long ago as 2000; almost got going in 2007; and finally in 2015, realized life was not infinite, so I'd better get cracking. How did you come up with the title? It came out of my own frustration with myself, i.e., Why couldn't I let go of all this stuff? I continually asked myself. Why did you choose this cover? I wanted a cartoonish man/woman figure, rather like a New Yorker cover, so I thought of potato man. He/she is stepping off a cliff, but peeking through fingers in fear mixed with excitement and anticipation, which is what it feels like to let go. It's humorous, as the human condition is messy and comedic. What was the hardest part of creating the anthology? Keeping track of 30 writers and their rewrites. This is one thing that felt easier in the days of typewriters and hard copies. I sometimes thought the top of my head, or my computer, would explode from trying to keep track of the latest versions. What did you learn from creating Letting Go? I saw once again how many astonishingly good writers I have worked with. And, from the obvious pleasure the writers have shown since the anthology came out, I am reminded that writing is one of the most thrilling accomplishments one can have. Also, I learned via the efforts of our publisher at Bacon Press Books how invaluable the Internet is for promoting one's book or project. What are the benefits the book offers to readers? People carry a lot of baggage throughout life. The older one gets, the more baggage one carries. Despite wanting to jettison a lot of worn-out ideas about ourselves, anger, fears, or maybe simply old clothes or jewelry or books and papers, we all hold on to things and people and ideas much longer than we should. It is hard to let go, as comfort often comes from the familiar. So, in answer to the question, it is informative and helpful to learn what others go through in their effort to change, to let go.
As a Writer . . . As a fiction writer, is it harder to write nonfiction? No; nonfiction is easier; it's about truth, reality. Literary fiction is much harder. It reveals truth and reality, too, but to make living, breathing characters, you give away much more of yourself than you perhaps intend to. What's the hardest part about writing for you? Getting started. Staring at a blank piece of paper. Once I've started, I feel safer. Do Workshops help one become a better writer? I think workshops help one see the "holes" in one's work. Colleagues in a workshop make you see that some things you were sure you had written down are not there at all. Secret rituals to get started each day? Washing dishes, cooking, anything to distract myself from the anxiety of starting. Writers who help you write? Kafka, definitely. He always gives me permission to write freely, without worry that my thoughts are weird. They are. He was. But look how long his work has lasted. I'd like to say Henry James, but he makes me write too-long sentences. Who do you trust to read your work while in progress? Almost no one. I would never give my work to family members or close friends. It puts them in a terrible position. They can't be honest, for fear of hurting your feelings, so why do it? Do you have any advice for other writers? Read. What do you enjoy most about writing? The feeling of joy that comes on a day when I have written well. It does not often happen, but when it does, it is like nothing else. Publishing Dreams - The Old Version It used to be - if you wanted to get your book published, you'd have to dream big and wish hard. Hope you'd land an agent and the agent would find you a publisher. (Then everyone would buy your book, your life would change, and you'd be rich and famous.) What were the odds of that happening? An often quoted statistic back then - your odds of getting a first novel published were 80,000 to 1. (The odds of becoming rich and famous were too high to calculate.) I never believed it. But now when I see how many novels are published each year, it's entirely possible it was true. For every 80,000 authors who queried an agent or publisher, ONE would get published. Things had to change. Publishing Dreams - The New Version Now all it takes is a finished book (a good one) and some knowledge about how to create a print on demand paperback and an eBook. A lot to learn, but not impossible. The options for authors keep increasing almost daily. You can:
Some people, well-meaning I'm sure, will tell you the only way to go if you choose the indie route is to do it all yourself. I don't agree. After several years and a dozen books, I think asking authors to write, edit, design, format, convert, publish, and market their own books is asking too much. Some can do it alone. Most can't. Anne R. Allen has a wonderful blog post about not listening to all that good advice - When You Step in Dogma, Scrape it off Your Shoe: Writers, Ignore Dogmatic Marketing Advice! She says it better than I can, so please read her column. While it's about ignoring dogmatic marketing advice, the same could be said for publishing advice. There is no "only one right way." As long as I'm quoting people who've said things better. I want to mention an interview with Henry Baum by Chris Jane on Jane Friedman's blog. Baum is the founder of the hybrid publishing service,Kwill. He also takes issue with the "only one right way to go" kind of thinking. He says: "It seems awfully weird to me that there should be such gate-keeping about the right way to self-publish. The whole point of self-publishing is that it gives people freedom to take the road they want." Freedom to choose. That's what indie publishing is all about. Something Else I'm always looking for different publishing models and new ways writers can publish independently without spending a fortune, giving away all their royalties, and still stay sane. Which is why I'm impressed with Reedsy. It's a site where authors can find editors, designers, marketers, and publishers. If you're already familiar with Bibliocrunch - then you know what a time-saver this kind of site can be when you're looking for already-vetted professionals to help you put together your book. Each offers different benefits, but what drew me to Reedsy is their new Book Editor. I'll let them explain it in their own words. "It's a free and powerful writing tool that lets you write and export a professionally typeset book." You can read more about it on their blog. Having spent several days trying to learn Scrivener, having bought but not yet used one of Joel Friedlander's Book Design Templates, the idea of having a free and easy tool that takes care of formatting and conversion and lets you work with collaborators got my attention. They had me at free and easy. And if you can't figure out how to do it yourself, they have links to professionals who can help. I'm not looking to replace our terrific interior designer, but I do know that on our last book, Letting Go: An Anthology of Attempts, it would have been so much better to have had a way to work with M. E. Hughes, the book's editor, while we were getting the manuscript ready to submit to the designer. And I know a lot of cash-strapped authors who can't always afford a designer who might find this tool useful for producing a print-ready project. You can learn more here: (A note: I've joined both Bibliocrunch and Reedsy. I even have an affiliate link with Reedsy, To be fair, that came after I checked them out and thought their concept was pretty brilliant. But. I have not used their services so I can't say much about pricing for professional services. If you use this link, you get a $20 credit. But that's not why I'm mentioning it - I was delighted to learn about the site so I wanted to pass it on.)
MARION CUBA has worked as a writer in advertising, promotion, and nonprofit fundraising. Her novel, Shanghai Legacy, was a 2007 Benjamin Franklin Awards Finalist. For many years Marion served as an Adult Literacy Tutor. She attended Brandeis University and the University of Michigan, earning a BA in English. She is at work on another historical novel, which, like her previous book, chronicles a little-known chapter of the Holocaust when humane groups and ordinary individuals of all religions rose up to save countless lives. She designs jewelry, sculpts, and writes poetry. But her main passion and vocation is writing fiction. She lives in New York City and often features it in her work. Visit her at her website: www.shanghailegacy.com and her email:marioncuba1@gmail.com. "What has been so surprising—and rewarding—is that writing can be learned! When I look at the work I’ve done over the last many years, I see amazing growth. And this keeps me pressing ahead in discouraging times." Letting Go is an anthology of true stories. As a writer of fiction, did you find it harder to write a nonfiction story?
Actually, it was easier than writing fiction. Having one finite theme freed me up to just charge forward and write. I’ve kept journals for about 30 years, and I wrote this essay the same way as I did those entries. It’s total permission to say exactly what you want to. No worries about structure, point of view, voice—plus no need to start from nothing and create the whole thing. What are you working on? I’m working on another historical novel with the same theme as my previous book, Shanghai Legacy—namely, a little-known chapter of the Holocaust that chronicles the saving of lives, rather than their destruction. In Shanghai Legacy, German Jews who waited almost too long to flee Hitler, found refuge in Shanghai, the only place that would take them without a visa. In the book I’m currently working on, Jewish children who were arrested along with their parents in 1940 to be sent to concentration camps in Vichy, France, were taken in by the Jewish humanitarian group, OSE, who bought up old castles, teaching and hiding them. What has been the most surprising about learning your craft? What has been so surprising—and rewarding—is that writing can be learned! When I look at the work I’ve done over the last many years, I see amazing growth. And this keeps me pressing ahead in discouraging times. Do you think workshops have helped you become a better writer? Without a doubt. Living in New York, I’ve been privileged to study with a variety of wonderful writers and teachers: at NYU, the New School, Marymount Manhattan College, a Pulitzer Prize winner, and privately with individuals. At the Peripatetic Writing Workshops, run by Martha Hughes and Maureen Brady, I’ve had invaluable breakthroughs and experiences. Currently, I am part of writing class that gives me thoughtful, objective critiques. Their criticism—and my own, given to them—helps me refine, correct, and improve my writing. Also, the deadlines help keep me on track! Any writers you like to read to inspire you to write (or if you're blocked?) There are individual books that I read and re-read that inspire me, and, yes, help me when I’m blocked. Some of them are: Disgrace, by J.M. Coetzee; Ordinary People, by Judith Guest; A Gesture Life, by Chang-rae Lee; Bird By Bird, by Anne La Motte. Roz Kuehn received her Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Corcoran School of Art in Washington, D.C. She is the author of a novel, Various Stages of Undress (loosely based on six years as an exotic dancer in Washington, D.C., which was runner-up for the Faulkner-Wisdom Competition, and a finalist for both the Breadloaf Bakeless Prize and Bellwether Prize. She has also received numerous Delaware State Arts Council fellowships, including a $10,000 Master of Fiction fellowship, as well as a Barbara Deming Memorial Award for feminist writing. Her memoir, Losing Glynis, is about a coterie of well-meaning girlfriends who swoop in and make a royal mess of a close friend’s dying days. She acted as fiction editor for The Washington Review for four years and currently works as a legal secretary in a New York City firm. Roz Kuehn can be reached at reallyrozzy@yahoo.com You can read Roz Kuehn's essay, "Commencing Being Fearless" in Letting Go: An Anthology of Attempts. "I love the nuts and bolts of 'getting black on white' – getting words on the page – and then proceeding to polish and tinker. It’s like unpacking a crate of furniture and then arranging and rearranging, adding a picture or a vase of flowers, until the room is to your satisfaction." Letting Go is an anthology of true stories. As a writer of fiction, did you find it harder to write a nonfiction story? Actually, it was much easier. It relieved me of the burden of plotting and wondering if people will believe me. So other aspects of writing were able to blossom, particularly the narrative voice and tone. What do you enjoy most about writing? The idea of recording an experience for future reference and delight. Life just keeps moving along, and writing for me is like taking that telling snapshot and sticking it into an album and forgetting about it. Then you’ll take the album out one day and be so glad you recorded the moment. It will transport you back and give your life story an arc and meaning. It’s also really fun to paint your own experience so vividly that other people will travel your journey vicariously and understand you and feel as you felt. Aside from that, I love the nuts and bolts of “getting black on white” – getting words on the page – and then proceeding to polish and tinker. It’s like unpacking a crate of furniture and then arranging and rearranging, adding a picture or a vase of flowers, until the room is to your satisfaction. I don’t actually enjoy writing. But I LOVE having written. The editing/building-up process once I have the raw material is the most fun for me. What’s the hardest part about writing for you? That worry of taking a false step and ending up in no-man’s land. I always need to remind myself to “free-write,” “get black on white,” “write poorly” for the first draft. Even if the first draft is ugly and nonsensical, you’ll have something to work with. Also, since what I’ve written so far tends to be at least semi-autobiographical, I would hate to hurt a loved one’s feelings. Thankfully, my books remain unpublished! Where do your ideas come from? Usually from a strong emotion – a feeling of poignancy or longing or anger in connection with something I’ve witnessed, and then my need to wrangle the emotions into something I can read in story form and make sense of. How much time each week do you devote to writing? I tinker at least a little bit most every day. What are you working on? A mystery – totally new genre; I’m flailing about but can see it taking shape. What has been the most surprising about learning your craft? How much the unconscious mind and personality quirks and traits play into what comes out on the page. Especially during “free writing.” Also, how writing has been hammered out of us in school. Most people aren’t good writers because when they confront a blank page, they put on their “Writer’s Hat.” The hat makes them sound like a pompous stranger. Do you have any advice for other writers? Write as though you’re writing an email to someone who totally gets you and loves to hear from you. Do you think workshops have helped you become a better writer? Yes, very much. My writing teacher, Martha Hughes, always asks her students to follow these guidelines:
Tell us any secret rituals you have for getting started each day. I like to sit in bed with a laptop and have “Chopped” reruns playing at a low volume. I often get up for snacks while debating a character’s next move. I find nothing wrong with writing in spastic snippets. Every year, Smashwords holds "Read an Ebook Week." And every year, we like to participate by offering the Ebooks we have on Smashwords at half price. So from March 6-12. you can pick up a copy of
You'll need to use the code RAE50 And, if you've never ordered an Ebook from Smashwords before, you'll be pleased to find that you can download your copy in a choice of 8 formats. Couldn't be easier.. Here's what readers have said about In Search of the Fun-Forever Job:
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