Dear Friend,
When I sat down to write this letter, I first googled Jamie Oliver to get my facts straight about what I recently learned from him, and apparently, there is a lot to be learned from Jamie Oliver, both Dos and Don’ts-slash-Mustn’t-Evers. I’m focusing on one of the Dos.
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Dear Friend,
Author John L. Lynch made me swoon. I’ll explain.
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Dear Friend,
This newsletter is the second letter I’ve written to you this week. The first has been shelved to be shared at a later date. I had planned to reveal the cover and description of my third book, but when I started questioning my novel’s title (again), I realized it’s not ready to be shared. For now, I’ll continue to refer to it as Imogene, the one word that has consistently been in all of the titles I’ve considered, and therefore, probably the best title.
I blame thank author and book coach Sheila Athens for the change in plans. My partner, Ted, too.
Dear Friend,
At the time of this post, I will be forty-nine years old plus one week. Only fifty-one more weeks until I turn fifty.
And I won’t have eaten an entire Betty Crocker’s Cherry Chip Cake over a two-day period as I have almost every year for the past four decades. Why? In an effort to embrace aging, and therefore, an ever-demanding healthier diet, I’m scrapping the once-perfect-for-me cake along with the once-perfect-for-me icing*.
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One of the hardest choices an author has to make is if a scene should be cut from the final story and if the details should still be included as backstory somewhere else in the book. Hopefully, this decision is made with the help of a reliable editing team and beta readers, but ultimately, the reward or regret of said choice falls on the author.
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Bow wow!!! I just received the amazing news that In the Doghouse: A Couple’s Breakup from Their Dog’s Point of View has won Best Book in the Fiction: Cross-Genre category of the 2019 Best Book Awards sponsored by American Book Fest.
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A few months ago, I spoke with Marnie Summerfield Smith, a journalist, and ghostwriter extraordinaire. She is working with a dear friend of mine on his memoirs. Marnie often interviews people in her clients’ lives to learn more about them. This friend and I both survived difficult childhoods (him more so than me).
I can see why Marnie is the ideal person for aspiring memoirists to work with. She is easy to talk to and to trust. By the end of our discussion, I wished I could hug Marnie in person, but I’ll have to wait for my next trip to London to do so (there’s actually a few people I’d love to hug in London). We continued to chat about books and memoirs, and naturally, Marnie asked me why I wrote Tiger Drive as fiction rather than a memoir. We decided to do a separate interview. You can read all of my answers here.
Also, are you interested in writing a memoir? Sign up for Marnie’s newsletter, Your Memoir, and received her free how-to-get-started memoir guide. And let me know if you are interested in writing a memoir. I simply want to know because I appreciate you!
Thanks for being you,
Teri
Nov. 4, 2019, at 7:00 p.m.: The DC Public Library recently selected Tiger Drive for their DC Indie Author Project. The Cleveland Park Branch has invited me to present: “Why I went Indie: Traditional vs. Self-Publishing” – Join me!
Dear Friend,
I’m back from Australia and New Zealand. Kind of; the jet lag has been unlike any other trip. I loved everything about Australia and New Zealand. My teenage dream was well met!