As we’re getting to know one another, you might be curious to listen to my podcast. I launched the Make Meaning Podcast in 2018, on my father’s 80th birthday. It was a way to capture his voice and his stories as he battled a fatal illness while I still had time.
But it was also a way to interview interesting people about how they make meaning and find purpose in work and in life. That was the original mission of the Make Meaning Podcast. But as my life and career evolved, I pivoted the podcast to better suit my interest and needs.
Now, I focus on authors and people in publishing - their journeys and processes through writing and publication, marketing and critiquing, building a writers community and finding ways to share their words.
New episodes air every other Friday. There are nearly 150 by now, and more to come! I have a full slate already for 2023, and have booked guests for the first quarter of 2024. It’s amazing to be at a point where people are coming to me, now! I regularly get submissions by writers, publishers, publicists and agents, asking me to consider featuring an author they know.
I almost always say yes. (Click here to suggest a guest.)
That’s because if someone takes the time to listen to me and notice what I do, I’d better return the favor. And, I am so curious about how writers come up with their topics, find the inspiration and motivation to complete a manuscript, face the challenges of marketing and publishing, and keep going, keep writing.
Last week, I recorded an interview for the podcast which will air in September, announcing my forthcoming novel, Woman of Valor. My dear friend and soul sister Katie Scott interviewed me - a real turn of events! But oh my, it was so much fun.
Katie and I met in the mid-1990s as participants in a writers workshop at the Birmingham YMCA. I had just returned to Michigan after living in New York and Washington, D.C., and I was freshly graduated from my MFA program and full-on into a writer’s career.
We clicked immediately. Katie was raised Catholic, and you know I’m Jewish, but we both felt like we’d practiced each other’s religion in a former life. I call her Rabbi Katie because she is so protective and interested in my religion - and she’s watched me migrate through the denominations from my Reform-secular upbringing to a decade as an Orthodox Jew to my current everything-but-nothing identity as “just Jewish” where I take from all denominations but commit to none. (Though I belong to a Conservative synagogue.)
Likewise, I was with Katie on her journey of finding a priest (not Catholic) that would marry her in a lesbian wedding and grappling with her faith and her identity and trying to inhabit both. We’ve written together at a coffee shop midway between our homes, and she was the first person who came to the birthing center in the hours after my daughter was born, sitting on the bed with my baby between us.
I might say she’s a kind of life partner in a way, not the romantic kind, but I regularly tell her I love her and mean it from the depths of my being.
So when I finished Woman of Valor and wanted an honest opinion of the writing and the story, I sent it to Katie. And she was honest in her feedback.
Everyone needs a friend like that!
This episode will air September 9th in the run-up to my book’s launch. We ended the episode in tears, so overcome by our connection and the conversation.
As you wait with breathless anticipation (ha!) for this episode to air, consider listening to some that are already live, including…former journalist and cross-genre author Desiree Cooper, essayist and poet Christopher P. Locke, historical fiction author Tammy Pasterick, poet Sara Henning, Scottish author Merryn Glover, historical novelist Weina Randel, journaling expert Merle Saferstein, author of the Wilderness series of historical novels Rosina Lippi and more!
Book Giveaway
The next book to go to a loyal subscriber of the Rebel Author Newsletter will be Scottish author Ian Rankin’s Black & Blue. I’ll be announcing my next subscriber book-giveaway winner on April 24th! If you aren’t a paid subscriber, there’s still time.
Thanks to Lori Eaton, one of my earliest paid subscribers, who was the winner of the March book giveaway!
Also…our paid subscriber meet-up is April 28 at 4:30 p.m.ET! You’ll be getting an invitation via email to join this Zoom, where we’ll talk writing, author careers, and anything that interests you. Another great reason to become a paid subscriber!