Hi, I'm Lynne & Thanks for Reading

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As a long-time entrepreneur, I spend this time of year building plans and philosophies for the new calendar year ahead. I do it for my clients, and I do it for myself. And so it made perfect sense as part of my pondering, to examine why I’m writing this newsletter, even after more than two years of publishing to a lovely, dedicated audience.

Let’s begin with who I am and how I came to be a writer.

Hey there, nice to meet you! I’m Lynne Meredith (Cohn, Schreiber) Golodner, and I’ve always been a storyteller. I’ve also always been a leader while wanting to fit in and find love.

(If you’re curious, you can read an essay about all my names here. It’ll be in my forthcoming collection of personal essays, FOREST WALK ON A FRIDAY, due out in January 2025.)

I’ve come to terms with my inherent out-of-the-box-ness, even embraced it. I have people in my life who “get me” and who love me for my forthrightness, my outspokenness, my tell-it-like-it-is-ness.

Me in the early 2000s, posing for author photos at the building that was once my grandparents’ synagogue, and later a religious school that two of my kids attended.

I’ve been writing since I was old enough to hold a pen. I write to figure out what I think, to process events, and also to start meaningful conversations with people who choose to read my words.

For the longest time, I’ve been obsessed with making meaning and finding purpose. In this newsletter, I share my writing and publishing journey and also my observations about this strange, beautiful world.

As I switch from weekly to twice-monthly publication, I’ll be alternating between insights on writing craft, the business of writing, and living outside-the-box + finding purpose.

Connection, insight & where my goals and dreams align with your interests

So why should you read this Substack, when there are so many to choose from?

It’s a big deal that you’re here and choosing to read my words, to spend time with me on a regular basis. I am grateful.

Here’s what you’ll get:

• Great writing. Sometimes essays or lyrical wanderings. Sometimes practical writing and publishing information.

• Insights from an independent, risk-taking entrepreneurial author who doesn’t see barriers to writing success—offering you insights that can help you become more daring in making your writing dreams come true.

• Practical information about writing craft and publishing paths.

• Questions & Tips at the end of every issue, so I’m never just speaking at you.

I don’t follow the rules, and I succeed beyond even my own expectations. I’ve spent 26 years trusting my gut and working for myself, sculpting a life that I love to live.

And you can, too.

If you’re a paid subscriber, you’ll receive discounts on all my classes and retreats, a free book and occasional opportunities for live calls and group coaching sessions.

Everything Is Relationships

A year after my divorce, I was 38 and spent the week that my kids would be with their dad to on vacation with myself. I went to Victoria, B.C., and Vancouver, one full week alone. I paddled in the cold ocean waters. I stared at butterflies and hummingbirds at Butchart Gardens. And I went on a hike despite reports of cougars in the wilds of Victoria Island, climbing alone up the winding trail, until I hit a scramble of big boulders and couldn’t see over the other side.

I froze. I couldn’t go higher. But I also couldn’t turn around and go back the way I’d come because doing so meant I’d see how high I really was. I was shaking. And then a little family ambled along the path, descending from the top, and they asked if they could help me.

In fact, the woman offered a hand and I carefully climbed down over the crags onto sure footing. We walked together the rest of the way, me the solo traveler, and this little family of wife, husband, daughter. At the trailhead, we exchanged information and the woman and I started up an email exchange. She’s a graphic designer and for years, she did projects for my clients.

I connect with people everywhere I go, and they stay in my life for a very long time or forever. (Remind me to tell you about my amazing friend Tcheilly, whom I met on a plane to Los Angeles in 2012…and who is like a brother to me though I’ve only ever seen him that once.) Relationships are important to me – deep, meaningful relationships. And they are the core of my marketing efforts, too.

I’ve played tennis since I was a kid. These days, I spend Mondays at drill & play and weekends playing matches in a USTA league. I love the game, not only for the fun and challenge of it, but because I meet cool people on the court.

(Once, I packed the entire North Farmington High School girls tennis team into the burgundy minivan I drove back then. We didn’t drive with that many people in the car, but it was really cool anyway. (Look at all the stories from life that are ripe for writing about!)

A guy named Andrew has been showing up to drill & play for the past year or so. We got to talking, discovered that we’re both Jewish, and he asked what I do, so I mentioned that I’m an author who focuses on creating compelling Jewish characters in my novels. Every week, Andrew asks about my books and says, “I have to buy one.” To which I say, “Yes you do!”

Pics of me at summer camp

A few weeks ago, I wore a T-shirt that said “Happy Camper.” Andrew asked, “Where’d you go to camp?” (Most Jews spend a month every summer at sleep-away camp.)

I went to an all-girls camp in northern Wisconsin for many years, I said, then asked where he went. “Oh just Tamarack,” referring to the popular overnight camp in southeastern Michigan.

Andrew is around the same age as my cousin and his wife, both ardent Tamarack supporters, so I played a little Jewish geography and lo and behold, my cousin is one of his best friends.

A year of casual banter before we realized this close connection.

The next week, Andrew showed up with a brown paper Amazon package.

“Look what I got,” he said, pulling out my first novel, WOMAN OF VALOR. “You’ll have to sign it for me.”

Andrew’s a nice guy and a pretty good tennis player. I don’t play tennis to sell my books. After a year of getting to know one another and then discovering a close connection, he was eager to invest in supporting my author career. Because he knew ME.

Usually I don’t spend a year trying to make a sale, but I’m sharing this story because I want you to have the right perspective about what, exactly, book marketing is.

Effort.

Time.

Endurance.

Perseverance.

And getting REAL.

I would say this applies to writing, too. Write the story that you must write—not the one you think will sell.

And remember, nothing good happens overnight. You have to keep showing up and give fully and freely of yourself, with only a goal of connecting with people in real ways. The relationship matters more than selling one book.

When I speak to audiences (5 speaking engagements in November alone!), I share a part of myself and my journey, and aim to truly connect with readers.

This world is big and sometimes scary, but it becomes beautiful and livable when we have one-on-one conversations.

One last thing about relationships…

One speaking opportunity came by way of another cousin (same side of the family). Emily is the daughter of my mother’s first cousin, Donny. I’ve known them all my life, but we never really talked at Passover Seders or other events.

She emailed out of the blue, inviting me to speak to her book club, then asked if we could meet for coffee when she was home.

I’m about 14 years older, the oldest of this generation of cousins, and now we’re both independent, strong women with shared interests and identities.

I loved sitting on the pink velvet couch at Mother Handsome with her, getting to know this incredible woman who’s been right here all the time. On her right arm, there’s a tattoo of a north star with four signatures around it—three of her grandparents and one of our shared great-grandfather, Grandpa Louie, after whom I’m named.

She found their signatures through ancestry research, from draft cards, immigration papers, and the like. So many stories. So many fascinating connections. If we only take the time to build them.

Relationship marketing may be my focus in work, but relationships aren’t just a marketing thing. They’re how we find our way in life. How we know ourselves. How we make meaning. You might say relationships are the north star.

My Priorities for 2025

When I was Orthodox, I wrote a book called Hide & Seek: Jewish women and hair covering. Published by Urim Publications in 2002, it explains why religious Jewish women cover their hair after marriage.

A rabbi who was a leading expert on this topic contributed to the book and a few months ago, he emailed, asking me to read a chapter in a new scholarly book he wrote.

I was honored. I read it, offered feedback, and he suggested I do an updated version of my hair-covering book. But then he asked about my priorities and encouraged me to go after the projects that really speak to me now. Hair-covering is not even on that list.

The rabbi knows I’m no longer religious and still he was respectful and encouraging and believed I had something to offer in this realm. That felt nice.

But even nicer was the encouragement to trust my inner voice.

In 2013, my book, The Flavors of Faith: Holy Breads came out. It’s about how every faith or community has a bread, it’s something we all have in common, so why are so many faiths at odds?

Readers’ favorite chapter is the one where I go to a mosque to interview women who’ve baked bread there for a quarter-century, and whose bread sales keep the mosque afloat. They loved all the commonality between Jews and Muslims, how at home I felt with the Muslim grandmothers trying to feed me, as my grandmothers once did.

The other day, I went into the Syrian market where my friend Nedal works. He hugged me then said, “I was just talking about you.”

His parents are visiting from Syria, and he’s sponsoring their green cards. They asked how it is between Jews and Muslims outside the Middle East, and while social media shows how ugly it can be, Nedal said our friendship is a sign that real people connect in meaningful ways. Both of us want to believe that there is hope yet.

My guiding vision for 2025 is connection, creation, confidence. My priorities are to live a happy, healthy life. I’m putting work second—I’ll be working and writing and publishing new books—but my focus is ME.

My new daily schedule includes moving my body, going outside, reading and writing. Everything else comes after. A big goal is saying NO to anything that does not promote meaning, connection or speak to my soul.

Questions & Tips

1. What are your priorities for 2025?

2. Is there a friendship that makes you feel better about the world? If so, with whom and how does it do that for you?

3. What project do you really want to start? What’s stopping you? How would you feel if you just dove in?

4. Consider making a gratitude list, reflecting on 2024 and examining where you grew, what you learned, what you’d like to leave behind.

5. I take half of December and the first days of January off every year to connect with my husband and children, and to have quiet time. I also spend Christmas Day (which is not a holiday for me) deep-cleaning and throwing away things that no longer serve me. Might you schedule in some down time, some quiet time, some disconnecting-from-the-world time in the next few weeks?

6. After teaching my Hemingway webinar in November, I am motivated to reread all of his books that are on my shelves. What author would you like to go back to?

Thanks for reading the Rebel Author Newsletter by Lynne Golodner! Issues will come to your inbox on the 1st and 15th of the month. If you like what you read here, consider becoming a paid subscriber, sharing, commenting or getting in touch.