Authors Speak: Project Management for Authors
A book is a gift you can open again and again. Garrison Keillor Succeed and Soar’s Authors Speak series invites writers to answer questions about their artforms and special inspirations. Welcome Fritze Roberts Fritze, what phrase inspires your writing and life? I’ve been thinking of the novel as a kind of curation; like the way you can stage encounters with works of art. – Ben Lerner, on the novelist’s role in curating time. Fritze, how do these words help your writing, your life? I love that this phrase can apply to writing and life. In writing, every word, every paragraph, every scene must be specifically chosen to communicate meaning to the reader. We craft moments in a character’s life that convey an entire story – a string of events that illustrate a complex idea or feeling. Similarly, our lives are made up of days, and those days are filled with choices. We choose people and activities to spend time with, to put energy into. This is something I want to explore more on my YouTube channel. Sample Text: Writing, for many of us, is a creative and messy process. It is easy to get distracted by the maelstrom of ideas and language, characters and monsters. My goal is to give you some helpful tools that place just enough order on the chaos for you to finish your stories and enjoy success. In this book we’ll discuss five steps that will help you get more out of your life as a writer. Review Are you ready to get more out of your life as a writer? Creating publishable books – fiction or nonfiction – requires more than just writing every day. You need to prioritize your best idea, create clean copy, and maybe even work with professional editors and designers. Read More About Fritze Roberts Fritze Roberts is a freelance editor at APeculiarProject.com. She discusses the writer’s life in conference workshops and on her YouTube channel. Her poetry contrasts the small activities of everyday with the larger mysteries of life. Fritze writes about monsters, aliens, addicts, and animals – even though she is none of these things. She also serves on the board of Pennwriters. Keep in mind, Reading is essential for those who seek to rise above the ordinary. – Jim Rohn Succeed and Soar! Sandra Gould Ford Presenting arts experiences to encourage, refresh, enrich creative thinking and inspire. COMMENT. Beautiful and inspiring Succeed & Soar art can be purchased as posters, framed, metal and canvas. Art also available as puzzles, totes, blankets, mugs, greeting cards, notebooks, phone cases, pillows, towels, clothing and more. Shop All Art HERE. Collections change. Visit often. Thanks for your support!
Authors Speak, Suzy Robison
A book is a gift you can open again and again. Garrison Keillor Authors Speak This Succeed and Soar series invites writers to answer questions about their artforms and special inspirations. Welcome Susy Robison Susy, what phrase inspires your writing and life? It’s not where your dreams take you, its where you take your dreams. Maya Angelou For ten years I was the Director of Volunteers for the Homeless Children’s Education Fund. During that time, I learned that: The typical homeless person in the United States is a child and that 2.5 million American children were homeless at some point in 2013. National Center on Family Homelessness Susy, share how these words helped your writing, your life. About eight years before I retired in 2019, I imagined that my retirement project would be to write a young adult historical novel set in India in 1952 that teens might like to read. I was five-years-old when my family moved to India. My memory of the day we arrived was when our car was surrounded by begging children my age crying out for money. At a retreat when I was thirty, the teacher spoke about compassion and asked us to meditate on finding a compassionate heart. I searched back through my life and discovered that my compassion for others was first germinated at that moment with the children in Bombay. Its where we take our dreams Maya Angelou In addition to the experiences of a girl who moves to India with her father when she is fifteen-years-old Halley and the Mystery of the Lost Girls is about the beauty and dangers of the real world as reflected off the sights, tastes, smells and sounds that children and teens experience when they move to a new school, a new town, or a new country. Sample Text: Chapter One: From paragraph 3: Halley held onto the ends of her streamers and watched each one uncurl spiraling down toward her aunt, blending into a weaving of hundreds of thin paper strips that interlocked in the middle. Like a glorious, multicolored, abstract tapestry it linked them to the shore. She tossed her last one and waved just as the ship began to move. Review Your book is beautiful — the weaving in of animals and Indian culture so seemingly effortless — and just enough. Your use of color and imagery is wonderful. The mother’s death imbuing the experience is deeply felt. Her connection with friends and the tinge of first love all believable. The way you get us to relax as we near the end and then Bam! Incredible adventure and great character to follow and all the emphasis on nature and animals makes the book a joy to read despite the very grim matter of child trafficking. Professor Jane McCafferty, Carnegie Mellon University Halley and the Mystery of the Lost Girls can be ordered through Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Independent bookstores. About Susy Robison Susy Robison received a BA in English from the University of California, Berkeley but didn’t begin writing fiction until 2019 after years of directing volunteer programs in Pittsburgh. Her first novel was published in 2024. She and her husband love to hang out with their adult son and daughter every Sunday evening. Keep in mind, Reading is essential for those who seek to rise above the ordinary. – Jim Rohn Succeed and Soar! Sandra Gould Ford Presenting arts experiences to encourage, refresh, enrich creative thinking and inspire. COMMENT. Beautiful and inspiring Succeed & Soar art can be purchased as posters, framed, metal and canvas. Art also available as puzzles, totes, blankets, mugs, greeting cards, notebooks, phone cases, pillows, towels, clothing and more. Shop All Art HERE. Collections change. Visit often. Thanks for your support!