 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. 
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 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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