Ideating and generating new content is very mentally taxing for me. Does writing energize or exhaust you?ĭrafting (writing the first draft) exhausts me. There’s a jasmine tree just out the window, a huge colorful rug in the center of the room, and plenty of reference books at my fingertips. The room is full of sunlight, and my miniature dachshund likes to sit next to me while I work. When my husband and I bought our house, we had custom bookshelves installed in my office, and a built-in desk. Where do you get most of your writing and editing done? I’ve met so many great people-writing friends and publishing contacts-at conferences, and I’ve filled countless notebooks with ideas to incorporate into my work. I haven’t been on a pilgrimage, per se, but I have found that writer’s conferences have been enormously helpful for my career, both from a social and craft perspective. What literary pilgrimages have you gone on? Word choice, sentence syntax, directness-all of these benefit not only public speaking, but writing, too. He taught me early on that it isn’t so much what you’re saying, but how you’re saying it. He was an incredible orator and masterful with language. My late father was a defense attorney and litigator, and when I was young, he used to let me sit in the courtroom to watch as he defended cases. What was an early experience where you learned that language had power? Also, each week they have an enormous fresh flower display delivered, which they arrange along with that week’s new books. It’s a bookstore, coffee shop, champagne bar, brunch spot, and working space all in one. This is a tough one, but I think I have to say Oxford Exchange in Tampa, Florida, just fifteen minutes from my house. Tell us about your favorite indie bookstore? I put on my headphones, get a hot coffee, and pass the hours away. I’m answering these interview questions while on a plane, and I’ll say, it’s my favorite place to read, too. Do you bookmark or dogear your page in a book?īoth! I grab whatever receipt or slip of paper is available as a bookmark, but if I don’t have this, I’ll occasionally dogear a page. Right now, I’m loving WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU? Which was co-written by Oprah and a psychiatrist named Bruce D. I like to read poetry before bed, so there are a few poetry books in there – old Edwardian poetry, erotic poetry, contemporary feminist poetry. I have a stack that is, quite literally, about to topple over. What books are on your bedside table right now? I think I had to write a paper on it, but I remember feeling just devastated by that book. I remember WHERE THE RED FERN GROWS, mainly because it had me sobbing in my dad’s office after school one day. But in the fiction space, I love historical fiction, including the subgenres of historical mystery or suspense.

My favorite genre, by a long shot, is narrative nonfiction – think Erik Larson or Nathaniel Philbrick.

The seance society