Interview with C.W. Allen

Posted on by Joanne Guidoccio

I’m happy to welcome award-winning author C.W. Allen. Today, she shares her creative journey and new release, Tales of the Forgotten Founders.

Interview

What was your inspiration for this book?

I loved puzzle mysteries like The Westing Game as a kid, so the Falinnheim Chronicles series was my attempt to give something back to the genre I love. Anime adventures like Bleach inspired Falinnheim’s shape-shifting slipsteel inventions. Tales of the Forgotten Founders is the series conclusion, so I knew I wanted to wrap up all the mysteries and explain how the world got started—Louis Sachar’s novel Holes and Kate Milford’s fictional city of Nagspeake gave me the idea to present this foundation as a story-within-a-story that the readers could dig in to right alongside the characters. I knew even before I wrote the first book that the backstory involved the ancient library of Alexandria, but as I did more research in preparation for this third book I discovered that political leaders fighting for control actually led to the famous library’s downfall, not a fire or a war as I had imagined. That conversation about book banning is incredibly relevant for today’s readers, but that wasn’t a theme I intended to explore until I was halfway through writing Tales of the Forgotten Founders —it emerged organically as I researched the history of Alexandria.

Which authors have inspired you?

There are a bunch of middle grade writers I look to for inspiration. Some favorites from my childhood are Barbara Robinson, E.L. Konigsburg, Louis Sachar, and Ellen Raskin. I was a big Agatha Christie fan as a tween, but I think today’s kids have a lot more current and relevant mystery authors to choose from. I discovered modern inspirations when I started writing: Garth Nix, Trenton Lee Stewart, Kate Milford, and R.A. Spratt.

What is your favorite quote?

I have a few! The African proverb “The ax forgets, but the tree remembers” has a lot to say about understanding differences in perspective. As a writer, I appreciate this quote attributed to Earl Nightingale: “Never give up on a dream because of the time it will take. The time will pass anyway.” And the Swedish saying “There is no bad weather, only bad clothing” reminds me to take charge of my choices and make the most of whatever situation I find myself in.

Any advice for aspiring writers?

The single best thing I ever did for my writing career was to join a professional writing organization. There are tons of these to choose from, whether they cater to a specific genre of writing or bring together writers from your local region. The League of Utah Writers was incredibly helpful in connecting me with critique partners and creating opportunities to learn the ropes from writers who were further along in their career than I was. I’m now a League board member, where I try my best to pay the favor forward and share my experience with new writers. Writing can be a very solitary endeavor, but that doesn’t mean we have to do it alone. Find your people!

What are you working on next?

Tales of the Forgotten Founders is the Falinnheim series conclusion. My next book is slated for summer 2024, featuring a whole new world and cast of characters. Mellie Morton Is Not Imaginary takes characters from international mythology and forces them to live in the same neighborhood. I had an absolute blast getting to work with an evil tooth fairy, a mischievous Japanese fox-spirit, a West African spider librarian, a legendary Chinese warrior, and fourteen Icelandic Christmas ogres all in the same story. So even though Zed and Tuesday’s adventures are coming to an end, there’s lots of great stuff to look forward to in my next series!

Blurb

Zed and Tuesday ought to be living the good life. After all, it’s not every day two kids take down an evil dictator and their mom gets put in charge of an entire dimension. But after moving into Falinnheim’s palace, they learn that life as royalty isn’t as carefree as they’d imagined.

Mysterious hidden passages aren’t the only secrets lurking within the palace walls. When the siblings discover a stash of banned books, they realize everything they’ve been told about Falinnheim’s history might be a lie. And though contact between worlds has been cut off for centuries, returning home might not be as impossible as their parents claim.

Could the adventures of a runaway monk, a reluctant viking, a silent ambassador, and a rebel librarian hold the solutions to both problems? To find the truth, Tuesday and Zed will have to learn the stories of Falinnheim’s forgotten founders.

Excerpt

The tale of Cyril the Librarian begins with a library, a fire, and a daring plan.

This story is not about Cyril. But all stories are connected, just as all people are, so this is where we must begin. We’ll get to Selene in a minute.

Long, long before Cyril’s story began, a man named Alexander ruled the world. At least, that’s what Alexander decided to tell everyone. In reality, he didn’t even know about most of the world, let alone run it. But Alexander came from a long line of kings and was the student of a long line of philosophers and generals, each with their own roots in legendary tales of heroism and greatness. The only way young Alexander could see to take his place among their stories was to create one of his own. So when he’d finished taking over all the lands and kingdoms he knew about, he proclaimed those were all the lands that existed.

Alexander was an ambitious man, but not a terribly creative one, so the title he took to celebrate his achievements was simply Alexander the Great. (A better name than Alexander the Adequate, you must admit. But still—not the most original.) He became king of Macedon at the age of twenty, and by the age of thirty he was king of Greece, Babylon, Persia, and Egypt as well. And by the age of thirty-two, he was dead.

He was called Alexander the Great, not Alexander the Healthy and Long-lived.

This story is not about Alexander either.

Author Bio and Links

C.W. Allen is a Nebraskan by birth, a Texan by experience, a Hoosier by marriage, and a Utahn by geography. She knew she wanted to be a writer the moment she read The Westing Game at age twelve, but took a few detours along the way as a veterinary nurse, an appliance repair secretary, and a homeschool parent. She writes long stories for children and short stories for former children. When she’s not writing, she helps other writers hone their craft as a board member of the League of Utah Writers.

Her debut novel Relatively Normal Secrets is the winner of the Gold Quill Award, being named the best children’s book of the year by a Utah author. The Falinnheim Chronicles series continues with The Secret Benefits of Invisibility (Cinnabar Moth, 2022) and Tales of the Forgotten Founders (Cinnabar Moth, 2023). She also has shorter work published in numerous anthologies. Keep up with her latest projects at cwallenbooks.com.

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Giveaway

C. W. Allen will be awarding a $10 Amazon/Barnes & Noble gift card to a randomly drawn winner via Rafflecopter during the tour. Find out more here.

Follow the author on the rest of her Goddess Fish tour here.

Growing My Wings

Posted on by Joanne Guidoccio

On Wednesdays, I share posts, fables, songs, poems, quotations, TEDx Talks, cartoons, and books that have inspired and motivated me on my writing journey. I hope these posts will give writers, artists, and other creatives a mid-week boost.

I look forward to receiving weekly emails from Robert Holden, a British psychologist, author, and broadcaster, who works in the field of positive psychology and well-being. Here’s an excerpt from a recent email:

At the start of the year, I got a shoulder injury. I got it playing football with my son Christopher. I was playing in goal, when I made a heroic dive that ruptured tendons in my shoulder.

A few days later, my family and I flew to Findhorn, Scotland. I booked myself in to see Kemi, who is an amazing bodyworker and healer who lives nearby.

“There is a deeper purpose to this injury!” Kemi told me.

“What’s that?” I asked.

“Your shoulders are telling me that they want you to rest more,” she said.

“I’d like that,” I said.

“To heal your shoulder injury, you will need to lighten the load you are carrying,” she said.

“You mean, take some weight off my shoulders?”

“Yes,” she said. “And it’s time to grow wings.”

Louise Hay believed that the body is a message board. And that your body is always trying to give you messages to help you be healthier, happier, and more whole.

Kemi feels the same way about the body. “Listening to your body is a spiritual practice,” she says.

Asking yourself a question like, “What message does my body want me to know today?” is a great practice for living a healthy life.

My new spiritual practice is growing wings. I am enjoying playing with this metaphor.

‘So, what can I do to grow my wings?” I asked Kemi.

“Let life love you more,” she told me, with a smile.

“I wrote a book about that!” I said.

“Let your angels help you more,” she said.

“You mean, stop trying to do life all by myself,” I said.

“Exactly,” she said.

Note: I highly recommend subscribing to Robert Holden’s website.

Interview with Linda Naughton

Posted on by Joanne Guidoccio

I’m happy to welcome software engineer, paramedic, and author Linda Naughton. Today, Linda shares her creative journey and new release, Blackout Trail.

Interview

What was your inspiration for this book?

I’ve always been a fan of disaster movies—Armageddon, Twister, and The Day After Tomorrow to name a few. William R. Forstchen’s novel One Second After introduced me to the EMP survival genre. An electromagnetic pulse takes down the power grid, leading to a complete collapse of society.

I really enjoyed those stories, but most of them (at that time, anyway) were about preppers or ex-military folks who were well-equipped for an apocalypse. I wanted to tell a story about regular people. People who were in over their heads and just trying to do the right thing in a world turned upside down.

What is the best part of being an author? The worst?

Knowing that a story you wrote resonated with someone is a great feeling. I write stories for myself first, but it’s gratifying to see others enjoying them too.

On the flip side, it’s nerve-wracking to put a book out there after pouring so much effort into it. Will anyone even read it? What if they all hate it? Accepting criticism is part of the job—you’ll never please everyone—but it can still provoke anxiety and imposter syndrome.

Which authors have inspired you?

As a kid, I read a lot of sci-fi stories by Robert Heinlein. I really loved his straightforward writing style and tightly written plots. I am also a huge fan of Jennifer Roberson, especially the Tiger and Del novels. She has a way of really getting into her characters’ heads and making them feel like three-dimensional people.

What is your favorite quote?

I’ve always liked this one from Thomas Edison: “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” This resonates with me both as an engineer and a writer. Your first draft or first prototype isn’t the final destination. You just have to keep refining it until it’s right.

Besides writing and reading, what are some of your hobbies?

I’m a lifelong gamer. These days it’s mostly video games with my kids, but I’ll always have a soft spot for table-top role-playing games. My first paid writing gig was actually doing freelance work for the Shadowrun RPG.

What are you working on next?

I am currently working on the sequel to Blackout Trail. The first story stands alone (no cliffhangers here), but I get attached to my characters and feel like there are more stories to tell with them.

Blurb

Doctor Anna Hastings is no stranger to disasters, having spent much of her career as an aid worker in conflict zones around the world. Yet when an electrical phenomenon known as an EMP brings down the power grid, Anna faces catastrophe on a scale she never imagined. She must learn what it means to be a doctor in a world deprived of almost all technology.

As the blackout causes planes to fall from the sky, Anna crosses paths with devoted father Mark Ryan in the chaos at the airport. Mark convinces Anna to travel with him and his seven-year-old daughter Lily to their family’s cabin in remote Maine. There Mark hopes to reunite with his wife, and find a safe refuge from a society on the brink of collapse.

Journeying across a thousand miles of backcountry trails, they will face a daily struggle against nature. Their biggest peril, though, may come from their fellow survivors. As Anna grows closer to Mark and Lily, she resolves to see them safely home. But can she hold onto her humanity in a world gone mad?

Excerpt

I had just enough time to scoop Lily up and pull her to my chest before the wall of water hit us. I’d been knocked flat by ocean waves countless times before, but this was different. The wave hit low, sweeping my legs out from under me and then carrying us downstream. The shoreline zoomed by, branches and debris swirling all around us.

“Daddy!” Lily cried, squirming in search of Mark. I tightened my grip, fearful of seeing her swept away by the churning torrent of water. I couldn’t see him either. Hopefully he was just upstream from us, in my blind spot.

The creek didn’t seem that deep; I felt my leg smack against the rocky creek bed a few times. I tried to stand up, but I couldn’t get my feet planted. The fast-moving current just bowled me right over every time. Once, we went under and came up sputtering. I worried that our backpacks would sink us, but Lily’s was small and mine surprisingly buoyant.

Over the roaring of the creek, I heard Lily cry out in terror. It was a heart-wrenching sound, but at least it told me she wasn’t drowning. I scanned the shore for something that we might be able to grab onto, but nothing came within reach.

“Anna!” Lily’s shrill cry caused me to snap my eyes forward. A tree had fallen across the stream, and we hurtled towards it.

“Hold on!” Her arms wrapped around my neck so tightly it almost choked me. When we were nearly upon the tree, I twisted my body sideways, trying to shield Lily from the impact.

Buy Links

Amazon | Paperback (wide)

Author Bio and Links

Linda Naughton has been writing stories for as long as she can remember. She is the author of several novels, children’s books, and the blog Self-Rescuing Princesses. A proud geek and gamer girl, she enjoys sci-fi, disaster movies, and role-playing games. She is a software engineer, paramedic, and mother of two.

Website | Twitter | Facebook

Giveaway

Linda Naughton will be awarding a $15 Amazon/Barnes & Noble gift card to a randomly drawn winner via Rafflecopter during the tour. Find out more here.

Follow Linda on the rest of her Goddess Fish tour here.

Excerpt Tour: Matching the Marquess

Posted on by Joanne Guidoccio

I’m happy to welcome USA Today bestselling author Darcy Burke. Today, Darcy shares her new release, Matching the Marquess.

Blurb

Benjamin Nash, Marquess of Creslow, must marry, for he is the last of the family line. Desirous of a business arrangement instead of a love match, he hires a matchmaker, but on the way to the May Day festival where he will meet her, as well as his matches, he encounters an alluring lady who may suit him perfectly…

After her husband’s death left her a pauper, Rebecca Sweet relied on family for help and in return guided two of them to successful marriages. Engaged with her first real client, she plans to present him a gaggle of young ladies eager to wed. But when she realizes the marquess is the same dashing gentleman she met on the way to the festival, the task becomes far more complicated. Attraction simmers between them, however Nash wants a loveless marriage and Rebecca would only wed again for love. She must find him a bride before she loses her heart forever.

Excerpt

The swarm of young ladies was trying even Nash’s patience. He could typically charm and flirt all night long. Doing so, in fact, was what he was known for. But this unfettered and unabashed attention by so many directed completely at him was unlike anything he’d ever experienced. On the London Marriage Mart, or even in London outside of the Marriage Mart, people were much more discreet with their attention. Usually.

Apparently, it didn’t matter that he’d tried to make himself less attractive. He hadn’t helped himself by being gregarious at first, but now he stood with his arms crossed in an attempt to keep the masses away. It still wasn’t enough. He set his lips into a deep frown.

“What’s wrong, my lord?” asked a fresh-faced young lady with round brown eyes.

Before he could grunt in response, Mrs. Sweet arrived outside the press. Their gazes met, and he sent her a silent plea. She threaded her way through the young ladies, tilting her head this way and that as she murmured things he couldn’t hear. He could only see her lips move. And what lovely lips they were.

When she at last reached him, she gave the young ladies a bright smile. “Forgive us, but Lord Creslow is due to speak with someone.” She clutched his arm and guided him through the throng.

“Thank you,” he whispered. “I was growing most desperate.”

She steered him out of the ballroom and into an antechamber where refreshments were laid out on tables. “I could see that.”

“There were just so many of them. I’m slightly embarrassed. Typically, I can hold my own. However, I’ve never been beset like that. I’m used to some decorum in London.”

“You are not in London, as you’ve learned.”

Author Bio and Links

USA Today Bestselling Author Darcy Burke loves history, her family, and cats (not in that in that order). She’s published over fifty captivating, compelling historical and contemporary romance novels and novellas. It all started with The Magic Swan when she was 11 years old, a happily ever after about a swan addicted to magic and the female swan who loved him—with exceedingly poor illustrations. She still has plenty of ideas and writes (it seems) constantly in between hanging with her family, playing games, listening to the Dave Matthews Band, bingeing period TV shows, and chilling with her seven rescue cats. Join her Reader Club at https://www.darcyburke.com/join.

Facebook: Darcyburkefans | Facebook Group: DarcysDuchesses | Instagram | Pinterest | Twitter | Goodreads | BookBub

Giveaway

Darcy Burke will be awarding the first two books in the Wicked Dukes Club series (One Night for Seduction and One Night of Surrender) – US winner’s choice of ebook or print, and international winner ebook only, to a randomly drawn winner via Rafflecopter during the tour. Find out more here.

Follow Darcy on the rest of her Goddess Fish tour here.

Keep Showing Up

Posted on by Joanne Guidoccio

On Wednesdays, I share posts, fables, songs, poems, quotations, TEDx Talks, cartoons, and books that have inspired and motivated me on my writing journey. I hope these posts will give writers, artists, and other creatives a mid-week boost.

In A Year of Writing Dangerously, author and teacher Barbara Abercrombie shares anecdotes, insights, and solutions. Here’s a thought-provoking excerpt:

Maybe the essay you’re writing, or the memoir or novel, has now taken up residence in your inner life, like a DVD playing in your head. Maybe as you go to sleep at night, you’re working on your story, you dream it. And when you brush your teeth in the morning, you’re thinking about it, seeing flashbacks of your own life or your characters hovering behind you. If it’s a book you’re working on, you imagine what the cover will look like. Articles you read in the newspaper or online, things you observe, hear on radio or TV—everything starts to connect to your work.

Maybe you already have a draft of an essay or short story you’ve written that needs to sit for a while for you to get some perspective on it, and you’re looking for the subject of your next one. What you look for, you usually find.

Or maybe not. Maybe you’re stuck. But the only way to become unstuck is to keep showing up, to keep writing. And trust that when you do show up, something will be playing in your unconscious.

Source: A Year of Writing Dangerously, p.149

10 Interesting Facts about Sgt. Winston Windflower

Posted on by Joanne Guidoccio

I’m happy to welcome best-selling author Mike Martin. Today, Mike shares interesting facts about the protagonist of the award-winning Sgt. Windflower Mystery series and his new release, All That Glitters.

1. He’s Cree from Pink Lake, Alberta

Windflower is a Cree from the fictional community of Pink Lake Alberta. People ask why did I make him Indigenous? I didn’t make him anything. That’s the way he came. Windflower came out of the fog one night in Grand Bank, Newfoundland and started talking to me. I just wrote down his story.

2. He likes to eat

This will come as no surprise to anyone who’s read any of the Sgt. Windflower books. His favourite foods are mostly meat and fish. And desserts, especially chocolate peanut butter cheesecake. Food is an important element in the Windflower books because they give a break in the police action, an opportunity to visit with friends, and sometimes a chance to reveal clues or additional details about crimes or criminals.

3. He likes to cook

Almost as much as he likes to eat, Windflower likes to cook. His specialities would be grilling or barbequing. Anything from steak to ribs to pork chops. He also loves to cook fish and makes a delicious fried cod with garlic mashed potatoes and maple Brussel Sprouts. And scrunchions. Small pieces of fried fatback pork that are sprinkled over the cod fish.

4. He likes to pick blueberries

He could spend hours picking any kind of berries, but blueberries would be his favourite. For him, he enjoys the quiet, meditative action of picking berries. Being outdoors in nice weather and being close to Mother Earth. And he loves all the baking that comes out of the berry crop. Sheila, his wife, makes a blueberry buckle that he could die for.

5. He likes Shakespeare quotes

Windflower and his friend Ron Quigley had an instructor at the RCMP training college who loved the Bard. He inspired these two young RCMP cadets to learn and practice quotes. They picked up the habit and carried it into their professional careers together. That’s why quotes are found all through the Windflower books. One that pops up a lot is ‘Hell is empty and all the devils are here’. Pretty apropos for police work.

6. He likes classical music

He didn’t always like classical music. More of a classic rock guy. But his friend, Herb Stoodley, turned him on to this type of music and he loves it now. Every so often Herb gives him a CD and he likes nothing better than to play it when he is travelling by himself on the lonely highways in Newfoundland.

7. He likes trout fishing

Another passion that he picked up from Herb Stoodley who is a master fisherman. Herb takes him all over the area to find the best fishing ponds and the biggest fish. They even go sea trout fishing in the rivers that run directly into the ocean. Those are some of the biggest and tastiest trout that Windflower has ever eaten. He grills them on the BBQ, by the way.

8. He likes walking and hiking

Windflower loves being outside. Even in the winter. Even in the rain, drizzle and fog that is often the weather in this part of the world. He especially likes walking on the many trails in the area and over the barrens and rocky hills overlooking Grand Bank. The view from the top is spectacular.

9. His pets Lady and Molly

Windflower and his collie Lady have a love affair ever since he rescued her after her original owner died in a car crash. They are constant companions on their daily, and nightly, walks around Grand Bank. He loves Molly the cat, too. But isn’t so sure that love is reciprocated. But he keeps working on that relationship and finds that morsels of salmon always help.

10. He loves Newfoundland

One characteristic of Windflower that would be apparent to anyone upon meeting him is that he has a great love of Newfoundland. He liked the community of Grand Bank right from the beginning, fell in love with Sheila at the same time and then grew to love the people, the food, even the weather. Well, not so much the weather, but the feeling of being so close to the ocean filled him up so much he can’t imagine ever leaving.

Blurb

Sergeant Winston Windflower is moving on to a new chapter of his life, no longer an RCMP officer but now a Community Safety Officer in his home of Grand Bank, Newfoundland.

But when a body is found in the bed and breakfast he co-owns, diamonds are found in the body’s digestive system, and then Windflower’s friend Dr. Sanjay, who was given the diamonds for safekeeping, is kidnapped, it’s clear that crime has returned once more to Grand Bank.

Windflower finds himself back in the thick of it, helping his newly promoted friend, RCMP Corporal Eddie Tizzard, track down a ruthless diamond smuggler who will stop at nothing — kidnapping, even murder — to pull off his dirty business.

This is another finely spun Windflower mystery that contrasts suspense and tension with the joys of friendship, family, and gratitude.

All That Glitters is available in fine bookstores all over Canada and around the world on Amazon.

Amazon CA | Amazon US | Amazon UK | Amazon AU

Author Bio

Mike Martin was born in St. John’s, NL on the east coast of Canada and now lives and works in Ottawa, Ontario. He is a long-time freelance writer and his articles and essays have appeared in newspapers, magazines and online across Canada as well as in the United States and New Zealand.

He is the award-winning and best-selling author of the award-winning Sgt. Windflower Mystery series set in beautiful Grand Bank. There are now 13 books in this light mystery series with the publication of All That Glitters.

A Tangled Web was shortlisted in 2017 for the best light mystery of the year, and Darkest Before the Dawn won the 2019 Bony Blithe Light Mystery Award.

Some Sgt. Windflower Mysteries are now available as audiobooks and the latest A Tangled Web was released as an audiobook in 2023. All audiobooks are available from Audible in Canada and around the world.

Mike is Past Chair of the Board of Crime Writers of Canada, a national organization promoting Canadian crime and mystery writers and a member of the Newfoundland Writers’ Guild and Capital Crime Writers.

You can follow the Sgt. Windflower Mysteries on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/TheWalkerOnTheCapeReviewsAndMore/

Honoring Tina Turner

Posted on by Joanne Guidoccio

Legendary icon Tina Turner died yesterday at age 83.

One of the best-known singers of her generation, Tina started performing as a teenager in rural Tennessee and embarked on a long, often painful, journey to global stardom. She was almost forty when she finally broke free from an abusive marriage.

In an interview with German Vogue, she commented, “A lot of people thought that Tina Turner was history. They only knew Ike and Tina Turner and didn’t understand what was going on. So I had to test myself.”

While she found it difficult at first, she achieved even greater success as a solo artist, proving she could hold her own against any man. At age 60, she was the biggest-selling concert artist in the world. Her high energy and uninhibited style earned her the title: Queen of Rock ‘n’ Roll.

My favorite quotations from Tina Turner:

“My legacy is that I stayed on course… from the beginning to the end because I believed in something inside of me.”

“I believe that if you’ll just stand up and go, life will open up for you.”

“The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.”

“At every moment, we always have a choice, even if it feels as if we don’t. Sometimes that choice may simply be to think a more positive thought.”

“The older you get, the more you realize it’s not what happens, but how you deal with it.”

“You must love and care for yourself, because that’s when the best comes out.”

“My greatest beauty secret is being happy with myself.”

“Sometimes you’ve got to let everything go—purge yourself. If you are unhappy with anything… whatever is bringing you down, get rid of it. Because you’ll find that when you’re free, your true creativity, your true self comes out.”

“My heartfelt wish is that you and I, and everyone around the world, will continue expanding our hearts and minds while celebrating our differences and ridding ourselves of any form of discrimination. This, I believe, is a basic requirement for peace, both within ourselves and in our societies.”

“This is what I want in heaven… words to become notes and conversations to be symphonies.”

My favorite song:

Advice for First-Generation Writers

Posted on by Joanne Guidoccio

On Wednesdays, I share posts, fables, songs, poems, quotations, TEDx Talks, cartoons, and books that have inspired and motivated me on my writing journey. I hope these posts will give writers, artists, and other creatives a mid-week boost.

In a recent post on the Writer Unboxed blog, award-winning author Jennifer De Leon shared advice for first-generation writers. Here’s an excerpt from that post:

Much has been said about being a first-generation college graduate, or a first-time home buyer, or the first woman in space. But being the first writer in the family is such a unique and often emotional experience. Here are a few things that have helped me.

Remember that it’s a job. It’s easy to say now, but for a long time I didn’t see writing as “a real job.” It was my hobby. It was something I did when I felt like it. I didn’t have any real deadlines. I now have contracts with publishing houses, deadlines for my agent and my editor, deliverables (such as this blog post!), and research to do for my next book. For a very long time, I did not get paid for my writing. But if I could go back in time, I would tell my younger self: it is a job, whether you get paid or not. It’s work. Real work. Really hard work, sometimes. It’s not frivolous. It matters. So: roll up your sleeves, make a schedule, commit to your art, and get to work.

Write about them. Yes, write about your family. For me, this helped bridge the gap between my identity as a writer and my relationships with family members. I have written about my parents, extended relatives, children, husband, and sisters, in my creative nonfiction essays. And in my novels and short stories, I often pinch certain characteristics from family members and give them to fictional characters. This doesn’t work for everyone, of course, but for me, I find that it is a privilege to finally be able to bring often marginalized stories, to the center. I love this quote by playwright Suzan-Lori Parks: “Write for them, fight for them.”

Take your family with you to readings and events. I have taken my mom to countless readings and even the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference in Sicily. My husband and I have spent time in several writing residencies across the country. I bring my young sons to readings and events. I have a distinct memory of my then three-year-old son running across an enormous stage towards me while I read at the podium. I looked at his sweet face, picked him up, and kept reading.

Know that it’s okay if they don’t “get it.” Sometimes family will say dumb stuff. Or ask questions at holiday tables that make you feel totally deflated. What have you published lately? How much do you get paid for writing a book? How long does it take? What page are you on now? Take it with a grain of salt. Most people don’t know what really goes into being a writer, into publishing a book.

Have a sense of humor. It really does help.

Above all, my advice is to keep going. Being the first writer in the family can be trying at times, joyous and celebratory at others, but above all, it is an honor to be able to do what you love in this life. And by being the first, it means you are helping to carve a path for others.

Source: Writer Unboxed