When Busyness Becomes a Dog Run

Wednesday, April 15, 2026
 
A photo of a stranger's dog from Pixabay to represent my metaphor

The last month or so has been quite the doozy. It began when I had an idea for a Substack featuring podcasters looking for guests. I launched it, not sure about the time investment or whether it was worth it, but I wanted to give it a try.

In a few weeks, I went from roughly 400 to about 800 subscribers. That's remarkable, right? 

Well, when I had a really bad day that hit me really hard, I knew something had to give with my schedule. I ran across someone's newsletter that asked, "Is your schedule full but not increasing your income?"

In reality, I think they were selling a course or their coaching business, but that question came back to me on that particularly bad day. The few weeks of reaching out to podcasters did require extra time. It took several hours on Saturday to find and compile the information.

And it wasn't just that feature on my Substack that drained me, as I was also doing a fairly regular "Weekend Care Package" post. It was all fun...but...had I really just built myself a dog run?

I think it's my need to control my circumstances that sometimes leads me to create a busyness that feels productive but doesn't really go anywhere. That doesn't fit my goals. That is really taking up space without leaving room to really grow.

So, I sent out a more solemn-than-I-meant-to Substack post advising people of my pause on all features, including my posts featuring podcasters looking for guests. I braced myself, because I knew I'd feel guilty. And I did. I mean, someone even volunteered their time to help me when they read my announcement.

But I thought to myself: give it time. I asked myself to reflect at the end of the week to see if there really was room for this feature. Maybe I could go back if I felt it really benefited me this way (hey, it's a marketing funnel to the podcast service, really! my inner busyness addict said).

Well, now that a week has gone by, I've come to accept I made the right choice. 

And if you feel like you are too busy to write, or even more importantly, too busy to rest, make sure you haven't accidentally generated a busyness for yourself that is just a dog run. 

And you have to know what's right for you. For example, some people do fantastic with their newsletters. And it works for them. They had the time and room in their life for it to grow, and it's now a success. But we shouldn't base our goals on what worked for someone else. Don't be afraid to accept that something isn't right for you. 

In an ironic twist of fate, soon after that, I ended up picking up an extra writing gig, and another might start next week. It made me realize the importance of leaving room for things.

So if you feel like you are running around like a chicken with its head cut off (I knew one day that metaphor would enter into my writing), pause, do a busyness inventory, and see what you can stop doing for a while. See if it works and leaves you with breathing room.

Nicole Pyles is a chronic busyness addict who promises she'll stop adding unnecessary things to her plate. Check out her writing blog for updates at https://worldofmyimagination.com. Or say hi on threads at @BeingTheWriter.
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Interview with Jewels - WOW! Q1 Creative Nonfiction Essay Runner Up

Sunday, April 12, 2026


Jewels, a runner up in the Q1 2026 Creative Nonfiction Essay Contest for Headbanger's Mask, joins us today with some thoughts on memoir. As a writer and artist based in the Pacific Northwest, has been trying to speak her truth since before she had the language for it. Her work explores identity, masking, and the long, uneven process of becoming audible—to herself first, and then to others. Her writing is informed by a parallel practice in systems, culture, and narrative analysis. 


You can read more of her work on Substack at https://www.jewelsfromcoal.com/ where she shares reflections, writing, and creative work.


WOW:  “Headbanger’s Mask” was a powerful essay. What message do you hope will remain with your readers?


Jewels: What I hope readers carry with them is the idea that the masks we wear often begin as protection. For many of us—especially those navigating race, identity, or belonging in environments that weren’t built for us—masking can be a survival strategy. But over time, those masks can also become prisons if we never take them off.


Writing the essay helped me understand that the version of myself I created to survive wasn’t fake—it was adaptive. The real work now is learning how to keep the strength that mask gave me while still allowing my true self to breathe.


WOW: Do you think all people recognize that they wear a mask?


Jewels: I don’t think everyone does, at least not right away. Many of the masks we wear are learned so early that they feel like personality instead of performance. For people who exist at the intersection of multiple identities—race, gender, class, sexuality, neurodivergence—the awareness often comes earlier because we’re constantly adjusting ourselves to different environments. But even then, recognizing the mask and understanding why it exists are two different things. Sometimes writing is the first place where that realization happens.


WOW: Has writing been an important way to learn about yourself?


Jewels: Writing has been part of my life since I was young, though I didn’t always understand its importance at the time. It started as journaling, then poetry, then essays. Over the years it became the place where I could ask the questions I didn’t always feel safe asking out loud. Writing helped me make sense of the spaces between identity, family history, culture, and belonging. Looking back now, I realize writing wasn’t just expression—it was also a form of listening to myself.


WOW: Do you have a preferred type of writing or genre?


Jewels: I’m most drawn to creative nonfiction and memoir because they allow me to explore lived experience while still using the tools of storytelling. That said, I also write fiction and speculative work. Sometimes the truths we’re trying to explore become clearer when they’re placed inside a story. I enjoy moving between those spaces because each genre reveals something different about how we understand ourselves and the world around us.


WOW: Can you tell us a little about the progress of your memoir?


Jewels: The memoir I’m working on explores identity, belonging, and the long process of learning to love oneself after years of navigating systems that encourage masking and survival over authenticity. Right now the project exists as a series of interconnected essays and narrative moments. Pieces like “Headbanger’s Mask” are part of that larger exploration. The process has been both challenging and rewarding because it asks me to revisit moments in my life with honesty and compassion. It’s a slow process, but it’s one that feels deeply meaningful.


WOW: What’s up next for you?


Jewels: Right now I’m continuing to build out my memoir through interconnected essays that explore identity, belonging, and the long process of becoming. I’m also actively submitting my work and expanding my presence as a writer. 


In addition to my own writing, I’ve begun offering sensitivity reading and editorial support, particularly for stories that engage with race, identity, and lived experience. That work feels like a natural extension of my writing—helping other storytellers bring honesty and nuance to the page.


I’m also exploring ways to bring storytelling into community spaces through workshops and conversations. At this point, my focus is on creating work that is both personally meaningful and in dialogue with a larger audience.


WOW: Good luck with achieving the balance between writing yourself and writing for others. We look forward to updates on your memoir.

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Caio - Interview with L.S. Delorme (and Join our Reader Review Event)

Wednesday, April 08, 2026


Today Lexy Delorme is back with another book from her Limerent series, Caio. Because of the unique design of her series you can read Caio as a standalone and a great way to enter into to Limerent world. In today's interview Lexy talks about writing craft but you can enjoy her first interview and information about Bright Midnights HERE.

For more information about reviewing this book for our Reader Review Event contact jodiwebb9@gmail.com or sign up at https://forms.gle/KvrVVU955aeHtFL86

About the Book


Sarah Baker is a paralegal in a law firm in modern-day Brooklyn. Her life is bouncing between her abusive lawyer boyfriend, the voices she hears in her head and her soul-sucking work at the law firm. On a New York spring day, she meets Caio as he plays basketball on a street court.

He is alluring, intriguing and young. Yet that’s the least of his mystery, for Caio was beaten, thrown into a hole and left to die. In 1905.

Sarah tries to understand this enigmatic stranger while juggling the dubious ethics of her law firm and the ghosts in her head. As she struggles with loss, grief, love, beauty… and lawyers, she will need to summon the strength to break all of society’s rules, save several lives and step into a new and potentially magical life..


Publisher: Limerent Publishing

ISBN-13:  979-8987488096
ASIN:  B0DVQ6VX3R

Publication Date: Feb. 11, 2023
Print length: 307 pages


We're also inviting readers to participate in our Reader Review event. You can sign up by emailing: jodiwebb9@gmail.com and she will get you a copy of the book! You don't need to be a blogger to join in on this event; anyone who can leave a review on Goodreads and Amazon can participate and receive a copy of Caio - both print and ebooks are available. By leaving a review, you'll also be entered in a drawing to win a $25 Amazon Gift Card!


Caio, a book in the Limerent series, is available in print and as an ebook at LS Delorme, Amazon, Barnes & Noble. Add it to your Goodreads list.


About the Author


Author Lexy Shaw Delorme, writing as LS Delorme, is the award-winning author of The Limerent Series, a genre-defying collection of emotionally resonant novels that blend supernatural mystery, psychological thriller, historical fiction, and romantic suspense. With a background as a lawyer, pop musician, and science writer, Lexy brings intellectual depth and lyrical prose to every story she tells. Now based in Paris, she lives with her French husband and two very cool sons. Her work explores themes of limerence, memory, identity, and the echoes of past lives—and she’s not afraid to push boundaries along the way.


Connect with the author

Instagram: @ls_delorme

Learn more about Lexy on Upcoming Podcasts:




--Interview by Jodi M. Webb


WOW: Welcome back, Lexy. Earlier this year we featured Bright Midnights from your Limerent series and this time we’re featuring Caio. Although your books are all in the same series each has a different feel. What types of readers do you think will enjoy Caio?


Lexy: Each of my books explores a different theme. Bright Midnights looked at the different forms of attraction.  The good the bad and the ugly, if you will.   Caio explores the theme of appearance versus reality.   I want to explore the full spectrum of people situations and concepts within this thing.  Ouch, that sounded way too “final examine a literature class”.  In short, I think the sort of people who will like Caio, will be the sort of person who likes or will like most of my books.  


They are perfect for somebody who doesn’t mind something different, isn’t afraid of looking at things from different angles, isn’t afraid of introspection, and likes a story that will make you feel something.  I mean really feel something.   Caio will make you feel a lot of things.  


I have triggered warnings for all my books.  It’s absolutely for a reason.  Part of that reason is because of what it will make you feel but another part is because I push the envelope.  I don’t do that to shock. I do that to point out things that are really happening but that we often look away from.   In Caio, I’m looking at appearance versus reality in terms of appearance of age versus real age, appearance of kindness versus real kindness, appearance of honour versus real honour and a lot of others    One issue that people have had with this book and with Bright Midnights is that my bad guys are BAD.   And a lot of times they are in positions of power in which we would want people to be paragons of virtue.   



WOW: Talking about bad guys...actors often say it’s more challenging to play villians than nice guys. Your book has characters with a villain streak. Would you rather write for the villians or the nice guys?


Lexy: I write morally grey character.  That’s because I don’t believe in “good guys “and “bad guys”.   Mostly I see characters and people as being narrow spectrum or broad spectrum.   So how they’re perceived depends on where they are on that spectrum.   People who have a narrow spectrum will usually be viewed about the same.  If we think of the spectrum being like a pendulum that swings between creating and destroying, broad spectrum people are those who can swing between being a monster and being an angel.   The broadest spectrum sort of entity would be a god, capable of miracles and horrific atrocities.  I used to use this analogy all the time saying that if someone is behaving like Mother Teresa then they are also capable of being a monster.  Then I read a little bit about Mother Teresa and realised I was closer than I thought.   As someone who has acted, I love playing villains.  I love playing villains because I find the other part of the spectrum and find a way to weave it in.


WOW: I find it illuminating that you look at your characters as what they are capable of doing - both positive and negative. You’ve been upfront about the fact that Caio has trigger warnings. Although those aspects are key to the plot, have you had any blowback from readers who feel your writing is too dark?


Lexy: Oh yes, of course.  My writing is not for people who can’t deal with that.   The main reason is I do write about things that actually happened in the world.   If you look around there is a lot of dark.  But there is also a lot of light.   So if people are either unafraid or uncomfortable with that, they definitely should not read my books.   That being said, I find that people who are “survivors”  tend to like my books.  But if you’re looking for something cozy, be warned that there is nothing cozy about anything that I write. 


WOW: Consider us warned. We've talked about characters now let's move on to pacing. What’s the secret to maintaining the excitement and fast pace in Caio?  


Lexy: It’s interesting that you ask that.  Because the beginning of Caio is very much a woman who is not in a good place in life, I’ve had very different responses in terms of pacing.  Most people have given really positive comments about pacing, but occasionally I’ve had people have trouble with the fact that I lean into the difficulties of Sarah’s life in the beginning of the book.  I knew that would be something that could be difficult so I did a few things to keep the pacing tighter.   For example, I used a date at the beginning of each chapter.  That helps people feel grounded.   The chapters are fairly short.  Also, I pepper set ups throughout the beginning help you get a sense of what’s coming.  In all my books I aim to make the last third of the book as engaging as possible.  One of my readers said “Unputdownable”.   


WOW: I can sense the focus you put on the third part of the book. It is like going up the hills of a rollercoaster and ending with the huge descent. The Limerent world feels so addictive for readers, what about as the writer. Did you ever suffer from writer’s block?


Lexy: For me because I am neurodivergent, it could be very easy to lose focus.  But I found a way to harness that.   What I do is that I always have two or three projects that I’m working on at the same time.  That sounds counterintuitive but that means when I block on one, I can just go to the other.  Right now, I’m working on a new trilogy, and I’m writing them basically at the same time.  This means I never get bored.   


WOW: Can you tell us a little about your editing process. Do you have beta readers, professional editors, or is it just you and endless rounds of writing and re-writing? 


Lexy: This is a really good question.  I think you can only edit yourself through two or maybe three rounds.   After that, you either stop seeing it or you start picking at it in a way that hurts more than it helps.   So for me, I’m very lucky in that my family is very involved.  My youngest son is my developmental editor.  After I get about a third of the way through writing a book, I start reading him the chapters.   He helps me with structure and that core spine of a story.   Once I’m finished, I will do a first round edit of myself.   I then turn it over to him to do a second round edit.  And then I give it to my husband and oldest son to read.   My husband is the one who tells me if I’m getting too wordy.  My oldest son helps me with my themes and set ups.   He also writes my blurbs.  And then it will go back to me to make changes.   After that, I sent it to my wonderful Editor and she and I have usually around three back-and-forth rounds of editing.   I am a strong believer in having an editor.   I really lucked out because my Editor is also a reader.  She likes my books.  I would tell people if you can spend money on anything spend it on your cover and editing.  You want to be able to draw people in and then you want to be able to keep them once they start.  



WOW: What led you to shift gears well into writing one very long book and divide that manuscript into several novels? I can only imagine it was an overwhelming decision process.


Lexy: I have a very logical side of myself, as well as a very emotional one.   I think the logical side of myself stepped in and told me that it was unreasonable to expect anyone to read through 1 million word book.   And what I want at the end of the day is for people to read my books and love my characters as much as I do.   That’s what success looks like for me.   But forcing people to read through a gigantic novel feels a bit like putting a burden on people.  It also means I’ll lose them.  In today’s world, people are very busy.  And when they’re not actively doing things there is that lure of the phone.  So I want to do the best that I can to keep people engaged, which I’ve discovered means shorter books, but more of them.


Mind you, I didn’t just immediately come to this idea.  There was a Deep internal fight with my ego about this, but it ended in a good place. 



WOW: Any words of advice for those who dream of their byline on a novel?


Lexy: Yes, I think people get crushed or overwhelmed when they think about the big picture.  So I’ve learned that if you take the art of writing a novel down to its components, it’s easier to focus on the next component.  If you told me 10 years ago that I had to write 10 books within 10 years that would’ve been really overwhelming.  But if I tell myself, I need to write down the key events for a book, then the next step into outlining is much more natural and not as overwhelming. That makes things much easier.


WOW: What authors or teachers have influenced your writing?


Lexy: Flonnie Anderson, my 11th grade AP English teacher.  This woman made us write a five paragraph essay every Friday in class.   When I started doing that, I sucked.  But by the end of the year, I was becoming quite good at it.   And once you grasp the basic concept of the five paragraph essay, you just want to build on it for everything else   I’ve actually tried to track her down, but I haven’t been able to.   So thank you for Flonnie Anderson.


WOW: Yes, thank you Flonnie Anderson. Without you, we might never have had the opportunity to travel to the Limerent universe. 


Join the Reader Review Event


Readers, if you'd like to receive a copy of Caio by LS Delome for review, please email jodiwebb9@gmail.com or signup at https://forms.gle/KvrVVU955aeHtFL86. Book reviews need to be posted by  on Goodreads (required) and one other bookseller online site. We'll be sharing all the reviews in a Reader Review Event and Giveaway post here on The Muffin on May 15! Besides receiving the book, you'll also be entered to win a $25 Amazon Gift Card!

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The Purpose of Getting Lost by Tracy Smith: Blog Tour & Giveaway

Monday, April 06, 2026
The Purpose of Getting Lost by Tracy Smith

We're excited to have author Tracy Smith join us for a blog tour of her book, The Purpose of Getting Lost. This book is perfect for readers navigating midlife transitions, questioning long-held identities, or longing to stop performing and finally feel at home within themselves. Join us as we celebrate the launch of her book and interview her about her writing journey. You'll also have the chance to win a copy for yourself.

Before we get to that, here's more about The Purpose of Getting Lost:

The Purpose of Getting Lost is a reflective memoir about identity, belonging, and the courage to question the life you’ve carefully built. As Tracy Smith enters midlife—navigating the end of a long marriage, children growing up, and a growing sense of disconnection—she realizes she has spent years performing for expectations rather than listening to herself.

Through solo travel across more than thirty countries, Tracy doesn’t search for reinvention or escape, but for clarity. In unfamiliar places and quiet moments in between, she begins to notice her patterns, longings, and the stories she’s lived by—some worth keeping, others ready to be released.

Told with honesty, warmth, and insight, The Purpose of Getting Lost explores what it means to stop waiting to belong and start building a sense of home from the inside out. It’s a book for anyone who has ever felt out of place, questioned who they are becoming, or sensed that getting lost might be an essential part of finding their way.

Publisher: Compass Story Press
ISBN-13: 979-8993320717
ASIN: B0GFY8KR3J
Print length: 264 pages

Purchase a copy of The Purpose of Getting Lost on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Bookshop. Be sure to add it to your GoodReads reading list. 

About the Author, Tracy Smith


Tracy Smith, Ph.D. is a writer exploring the intersection of travel, identity, and belonging. Her work focuses on the small, often uncelebrated moments when women begin choosing themselves—sometimes quietly, sometimes far from home.

Through personal narrative and place-based storytelling, Tracy examines what happens when certainty loosens, expectations fall away, and life is allowed to remain unresolved. Her writing is less about escape and more about attention: noticing how freedom, acceptance, risk, and community take shape in everyday lives across cultures and landscapes.

She is the author of The Purpose of Getting Lost and the creator of The Geography of Connection, an ongoing project that follows these themes through travel, essays, and lived experience. Tracy’s work speaks to readers navigating reinvention, midlife change, and the courage it takes to live without a neat ending.

You can follow the author on: 


--- Interview by Nicole Pyles

WOW: Congrats on The Purpose of Getting Lost! How has your background in psychology shaped the way you approached writing this memoir?

Tracy: My background in psychology gave me tools for understanding cognitive patterns — how people process experience, make meaning, and behave in the world. But honestly, the more important thing it gave me was self-awareness. Writing this memoir forced me to look at my own patterns first. And once I could see them clearly in myself, I started recognizing them everywhere — in how strangers moved through a space, how people signaled connection without words. That's really what gave birth to the Geography of Connection. The good news is you don't need a doctorate to do this kind of looking. You just have to be willing to pay attention.

WOW: I love when we can recognize our own patterns in ourselves.  How did the memoir evolve from your first draft to the final version?

Tracy: When I first decided to write this book, I downloaded my Facebook feed — I had been documenting my travel experiences there for the past several years. I had close to 100,000 words and 200 single-spaced pages. I sent it to an editor and thought, great, here is a book. It wasn't until he and I talked extensively that I realized I didn't have a message. I couldn't tell anyone why they should pick up my book of travel stories over anyone else's. A lot of writers have funny travel stories.

So he gave me a homework assignment. The question that turned everything around was deceptively simple: describe the demographic characteristics of your primary audience. I sat with it and realized I wasn't describing a stranger. I was describing women in my everyday life: women who had lost themselves, who didn't feel like they belonged anywhere, who were one life event away from blowing everything up or breaking open. Once I saw her clearly, I saw her everywhere. That became the spine of the book.

WOW: What an inspiring assignment! Tell us about The Geography of Connection and how it relates to The Purpose of Getting Lost.

Tracy: Most people think belonging is something you feel. I’m interested in how it’s something you can see. 

The Geography of Connection is a project that examines what belonging looks like, not as a feeling, but as something you can observe— through behaviors, postures, and movement, and then questions how those signals of belonging are shaped by culture and environment.  

The project grew directly out of writing the memoir, where I started by looking at my own patterns.  That process forced me to look at my own patterns first, to understand where I had and hadn't felt like I belonged. Once I could see those signals in myself, I started recognizing them everywhere — in how strangers moved through a space, how people positioned themselves toward or away from each other. What struck me was how universal the signals were across cultures, even when everything else was different. 

The Geography of Connection is my attempt to build a framework around that — to make that kind of looking accessible to anyone, not just researchers. Because once you learn to see belonging, you start to understand what you've been missing and now you can feel it differently. And that's where everything changes. 

WOW: That's amazing. What advice would you offer women who feel nervous about breaking free from the traditional path, as you did?

Tracy: Somewhere along the way, most women I know stopped being a person and became a collection of roles — mother, daughter, wife, friend, colleague. Those identities aren't wrong, but they have a way of crowding out the one underneath. The woman who existed before all of them.

The first step back is smaller than you think. Maybe it's reading a chapter before washing the dishes. A walk at sunset before the nighttime routine starts. It sounds almost too simple — but what those small acts do, over time, is remind you that you exist outside of what you do for everyone else. And once you see that, once you feel it even briefly, something shifts. You start to understand that choosing yourself isn't abandonment. It's just remembering.

WOW: I love your advice on taking that first step back. What are you working on now that you can share with us?

Tracy: I am currently designing a 90-day place-based inquiry in West Africa — specifically Senegal and Guinea-Bissau. My project is not just travel and it is not academic research, though it borrows from both. It merges the rigor of structured observation with the intimacy of actually being somewhere, living inside a culture rather than passing through it.

The methodology is the Geography of Connection. I'll be observing how belonging is expressed differently across communities — what it looks like, how it moves, what culture and place do to it. But here's what I want people to understand: you don't need to be a traveler or a researcher to do this kind of work. You can practice it in your own neighborhood, your own kitchen. West Africa is just where I'm taking it next.

The 90-day residency is the first chapter. What I'm building toward is a year-long program rooted in the same methodology — but that's still taking shape. The Substack is where I'm thinking out loud, designing in public. That's the most honest way I know to do this work.

WOW: We can't wait to hear more! Thank you for joining us today. Best of luck on your tour!


The Purpose of Getting Lost by Tracy Smith Blog Tour

--- Blog Tour Calendar

April 6 @ The Muffin
Join us at the Muffin as we celebrate the launch of The Purpose of Getting Lost by Tracy Smith. We interview the author and give you a chance to win a copy of the book.

April 9 @ Rachael's Thoughts
Join Rachael for her review of The Purpose of Getting Lost by Tracy Smith.

April 10 @ What Is That Book About
Join Michelle for her spotlight of The Purpose of Getting Lost by Tracy Smith.

April 18 @ Boots, Shoes and Fashion
Visit Linda's blog for her in-depth interview with author Tracy Smith.

April 22 @ Writer Advice
Join B. Lynn Goodwin for a guest post by Tracy Smith on finding purpose in uncertainty and “in-between” seasons.

April 23 @ Words by Webb
Jodi shares her review of The Purpose of Getting Lost by Tracy Smith.

April 23 @ Knotty Needle
Visit Judy's blog for her review of The Purpose of Getting Lost by Tracy Smith.

April 25 @ A Wonderful World of Words
Visit Joy's blog for a guest post by Tracy Smith on midlife reinvention: identity, courage, and starting again.

April 27 @ World of My Imagination
Join Nicole for her review of The Purpose of Getting Lost by Tracy Smith.

April 30 @ Words by Webb
Jodi responds to our tour prompt of something she learned about herself later in life that surprised her.

May 1 @ A Storybook World
Join Deirdra for her spotlight of The Purpose of Getting Lost by Tracy Smith.

May 3 @ Bookwoman Joan
Stop by Joan's blog for her review of The Purpose of Getting Lost by Tracy Smith.

May 5 @ Sarandipity's
Stop by Sara's blog for her spotlight of The Purpose of Getting Lost by Tracy Smith.

May 6 @ Bring on Lemons
Visit Crystal's blog for her review of The Purpose of Getting Lost by Tracy Smith.

May 7 @ Balance and Joy
Visit Sheri's blog for her review of The Purpose of Getting Lost by Tracy Smith.

May 8 @ Boys' Mom Reads
Join Karen's blog for her review of The Purpose of Getting Lost by Tracy Smith.

May 9 @ Just Katherine
Katherine joins us for a review of The Purpose of Getting Lost by Tracy Smith. She also shares Tracy's guest post writing memoir from lived experience without polishing the truth. Katherine also responds to the tour prompt about what does “belonging” mean now and how that has changed over time.

***** BOOK GIVEAWAY *****

Enter the Gleam form for a chance to win a copy of the memoir The Purpose of Getting Lost by Tracy Smith! The giveaway ends April 19th at 11:59 pm CT. We will randomly choose a winner the next day. Good luck!

The Purpose of Getting Lost Giveaway
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Interview with Hallie Marbet, Runner Up in the WOW! Q1 2026 Creative Nonfiction Contest

Sunday, April 05, 2026

 


Hallie Marbet has been writing voraciously for five years, creating both fictional and non-fictional work. In addition to her shorter pieces, she’s written three children’s books: The Fire-sneezing Dragon, Changing Charlie and Chalk Doors, along with three novels: Final Dawn, Fog and Happy Sad Lands. She draws inspiration from tapping into memories of a rocky childhood and meaningful observation of everyday life. Her birthplace, Plum Island, Massachusetts, has always held her heart, but it never stopped her from living in more places than many. Currently, she resides with her family in Bracciano, Italy, teaching English as a second language to all ages. When she’s not writing or working, she’s either swimming, spending time with family or somewhere lost in translation. 

 ----------Interview by Renee Roberson 

WOW: Welcome, Hallie, and congratulations on placing with your beautiful and introspective essay, Losing Leaves. What first gave you the idea for this piece? 

Hallie: Memories of the Frank Church Wilderness have been bouncing around my brain for years. As you can see, there were a lot of sensory exploits and I dug deep to put them into words. I was twenty-one, just starting adulthood, but I knew that this experience would be character defining, mind-altering, and all encompassing. And it was. I started writing about it five years ago. It began as a much larger piece, with more specific experiences. But for WOW I honed in on crucial points. I'm currently working on a memoir for future publication. 

WOW: It certainly does sound like a life-changing experience and I'm so glad to hear it is also part of a larger body of work. What is your favorite line from the essay? 

Hallie: 'The echo of hooves on stone claps off the trees, frightening the birds again.' I like how the hendecasyllable sounds in the first clause of the sentence and how it changes after the comma, highlighting just how scared the birds were, how scared I was when that moose was standing in front of me. 

WOW: Thank you for picking that one out for us--I know how hard it is to highlight a favorite part of our own writing! As a children's book author, what do you enjoy most about writing for that specific audience? 

Hallie: It's easier to have more fun with the writing when the characters are animals. But it can also be more challenging since children are hard critics, the first critics. They know what they like. And if you can please a child with your words, that is success. 

WOW: So true! Who are some of the writers that inspire your own work?

Hallie: I love the depth and rawness of Charles Bukowski's writing. I read John Grisham like water. Stephanie Meyer has an amazing ability to get inside the head of the protagonist, and subsequently, the reader. And Stephen King is the king for me. I enjoy Agatha Christie's timeless writing. Pat Barker is a captivating author. And of course, John Steinbeck and Hermann Hesse are wonderful to read as well.

WOW: Bracciano, Italy looks like a magical place to reside! How is it different from your birthplace of Massachusetts? 

Hallie: These two places couldn't be more different. Bracciano, a bustling town, full of life and activity, is seated along the banks of Lake Bracciano. Thin streets snake throughout the small city, with cars screaming along them. Sidewalks are full of people at all hours of the day, except for lunch time, when shops close for a few hours. It's a great place for people watching and being seen. Plum Island, Massachusetts, however, was a very quiet place, surrounded by nothing but nature and water. The salt marsh was my backyard, where I would get lost for hours. And it may have been there, where my imagination learned to flourish.

WOW: I imagine it was! Your writing is a great example of how we can turn our experiences with nature and travel into compelling essays. Thank you for joining us again today. 
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You Want What? Time for Reinvention

Wednesday, April 01, 2026

 


I have reinvented my writing self multiple times. First there was my stint as an equestrian writer. When my publisher shuttered the magazine, I pivoted to book reviewer. As those pay checks became fewer and farther between, I briefly wrote testing materials before moving on to writing how-tos for my fellow writers. Then I started writing activities for teachers to do with their classes and parents to do with their children. Then came the school library market. 

But that market is under attack by book banners. There is even speculation that this may be why Penguin Random House announced the closure of its Dial Books imprint. I reached out to the school library packager that I work through and . . . 

Nothing. 

If it turns out that the assistant who is my contact left and someone else reaches out to me with an assignment, I’ll say yes. But in the meantime, I’ll be looking for work elsewhere. I could apply to work with other school library publishers and packagers, but I’ve decided to try other things. 

I don’t remember dreading my earlier reinventions this much. My husband says I have a highly selective memory. Pfft. 

Fortunately, just as I admitted to myself that I need to start looking at markets, the latest WOW! Markets Newsletter came out. The first market of interest was Mental Floss. “Looking for voices to write about the diverse verticals.” What? I know terms like reading level and AR and ATOS, but verticals? The next market I spotted was Elle. “Looking for freelance writers to contribute to the culture section’s main verticals…” Oh, come on. 

I may have stomped through the house grumbling about jargon and nonsense. “Oh, you’re on that point in the learning curve.” Can you guess who said that? When did my husband get so cheeky? 

But he’s right. Every reinvention has been accompanied by a steep learning curve. Like earlier ones, this one involves new-to-me jargon and the need to write original samples of my work. None of the clips I have match the markets I am planning to approach. 

That’s okay. Write what you like to read. I can do that. I just need to learn a thing or twelve first. Maybe this go round I’ll be an online nonfiction writer specializing in science and pop culture. That sounds like an interesting combo. 

 --SueBE

To get a free copy of Sue’s book, What to Do When Your Book Is Banned, subscribe to her newsletter, One Writer’s Journey, here.

Sue Bradford Edwards' is the author of over 80 books for young readers.  

She is also the instructor for 3 WOW classes which begin on the first Monday of every month. She teaches:
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Interview with Amethyst Loscocco: Q1 2026 Essay Contest Runner Up

Sunday, March 29, 2026
Amethyst’s Bio: Amethyst Loscocco is a multi-genre writer. Her work has appeared in Electric Literature, The Pinch, Catamaran, Variant Lit, Gone Lawn, Tiny Molecules, and elsewhere. She was a finalist for the 2024 Page Prize in Creative Nonfiction, and her essays and fiction have been nominated for the Pushcart Prize. She has an MA in Science Writing from Johns Hopkins University. She grew up on a farm near Truth or Consequences, New Mexico, and now lives in Oakland, California. She's currently working on a memoir. Find her online at amethystloscocco.com and on social media @amethyst_writes. 

If you haven't done so already, check out Amethyst's award-winning essay "Learning to Walk Again, Again, Again" and then return here for a chat with the author. 

WOW: Congratulations on placing in the Q1 2026 Essay Contest! How did you begin writing your essay and how did it and your writing processes evolve as you wrote? 

Amethyst: I wrote the first draft of this essay in grad school in a class called Subatomic Writing, taught by Jamie Zvirzdin, who wrote a craft book by the same name. The book is humorous and uses particle physics as a metaphor for the components of language and writing that come together to make words carry more energy and clarity (sound, grammar, syntax, punctuation, rhythm, emphasis, pacing, etc.). She was a phenomenal and inspiring teacher. Between her class and the book, through some kind of alchemy, a lot of writing concepts I’d been circling for years clicked into place. The final assignment for the class was to write a 700-word essay, in the vein of the flash essays found in Brevity. I’d been thinking about this essay for some time, about my complex relationship with the seemingly simple act of walking, about footsteps, about starting over again and again and again. Thinking is writing, is drafting. With the challenge of this assignment, I knew I was finally ready to write it and that the distilled form of a flash essay would be potent. 

WOW: That’s great that the class and the assignment helped to bring out a story that had been percolating in you for some time. What did you learn about yourself or your writing by creating this essay? 

Amethyst: I learned how much I adore the lyric essay and that maybe I do have a bit of poetry in me. I’m obsessed with the sound and sense of words, the rhythm of sentences, and how they interact together to echo or reinforce meaning. I always read my work out loud multiple times during revision and listen to how words flow and sound together and especially for anything I trip over. Then sometimes I read it to someone else and if I skip over something, it’s probably because I need to do the hard thing and cut it even if it might be a darling. Most importantly, that semester and especially in this essay, I found that elusive mythical thing—my writing voice. Frustratingly, I still must search for it in early drafts, but when it starts to sound like me, I know it. I’ll always be grateful for that. Also, this essay was one of the most vulnerable things I had written at that point. At the same time, I was just so dang proud of it, and I wanted to share it. It’s a bit of a contradiction writing personal creative nonfiction and being a quiet introvert who likes to hide, to not use that voice. I’m constantly reminding myself to claim it. 

WOW: Yes, it can be so challenging to find and claim and use your voice! Sounds like a formidable experience you had that semester. Please tell us more about the memoir you’re writing (what’s your focus, what’s your process like, how far into the process are you, etc.). 

Amethyst: My process is quite messy at this point because I’m still in the early drafting stages and trying to just get everything down. I’m almost finished with the first draft, though I tend to edit repeatedly way too early, so this might be more of a second draft. The book is called The House with Ten Doors and is a coming-of-age memoir about growing up in an unconventional mixed-race family of eight children, five of whom were adopted. On a farm in the desert near Truth or Consequences, New Mexico, my father built a magnificent house with ten doors to the outside, one of which led to nowhere—a drop from the second floor. Maybe even as he built it, he was thinking of exits, of escape. That house could not hold onto everyone. Ten people moved in, but, due to mental health issues, death, and my parent’s divorce, in a matter of five years only four were left. 

WOW: What an intriguing synopsis! Thanks so much for sharing that with us. Which creative nonfiction essays or writers have inspired you most, and in what ways did they inspire you? 

Amethyst: There are so many! I’m obsessed with Melissa Febos and recently finished her memoir The Dry Season. Her writing is so sharp and delicious with fully realized layers of personal experience, research, and reflection. I especially want to recommend her craft book Body Work for anyone writing personal narrative and trying to navigate writing about things that feel deeply intimate, like our relationship with our bodies, desires, and traumas. I also recommend Chloe Cooper Jones’ essay collection Easy Beauty about navigating disability in a world that is shaped to exclude and create shame around bodies that don’t conform. She is a beautiful, humorous, and unflinching writer that will make you feel seen or see in new ways, depending on your experience. This collection taught me the power personal narrative has to reclaim space and experiences that have been denied and inspired me to not shy away from sharing my own disability experience. Ultimately, writing and reading memoir and creative nonfiction is a chance at connection, something we all need. It invites understanding of lives like and unlike our own; it invites seeing and being seen. 

WOW: Thank you for those fabulous recommendations. If you could tell your younger self anything about writing, what would it be? 

Amethyst: You are already a writer. Never doubt yourself. Just keep going and the writing gods will meet you halfway. 

WOW: Excellent advice. Anything else you’d like to add? 

Amethyst: I’m honored to have my essay selected as a finalist for this contest. Thank you for your time and thoughtful questions! 

WOW: You’re very welcome! Thank you for sharing your writing with us and for your thoughtful responses. Happy writing!


Interviewed by Anne Greenawalt, founder and editor-in-chief of Sport Stories Press, which publishes stories by, for, and about sportswomen and amateur athletes. Engage on social media @GreenMachine459.
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Interview with Kelly Stallard, WOW! Q1 2026 Essay Contest Runner Up

Sunday, March 22, 2026
Kelly is an artist and a writer who retired from teaching high school English 5 years ago. She spent 24 years encouraging young people to write and continues this mission by designing original greeting cards through her studio, Mixed Pickles Art. She can be found at art festivals throughout Virginia peddling her work. Kelly is currently writing essays to compile into a collection that will highlight the beautiful public spaces in the Commonwealth where she finds inspiration and renewal. Her novel, Circumference of a Big Man, was chosen as an Honorable Mention winner in the Writer's Digest 33rd Annual Self-Published Book Awards. Her manuscript, Circle Unbroken, placed 3rd at the Virginia Highlands Festival Creative Writing Contest. Kelly lives with her husband in Winchester, VA.

--Interview by Marcia Peterson

WOW: Congratulations on placing as a runner up in our Q1 2026 Creative Nonfiction essay competition! What prompted you to enter the contest?

Kelly: While I think anyone can relate to my essay, it is at its core, a mother’s story. The unexplainable strength I found to open my daughter’s front door that was either jammed or maybe locked, the inability to squelch my gut feeling that something was off -- these are absolute truths that I think demonstrate the irrepressible bond between a mother and her daughter. Finding a contest that features the voices of women was a perfect fit.

WOW: Your entry “Until” is a powerful essay about a horrific event for your family. What inspired you to write this particular piece?

Kelly: There were two inspirations. First, my husband and I own a 17’ Airstream, so we spend a lot of time camping. We live in Virginia where the state park system is outstanding. I started writing essays a few years ago aiming to focus at least one essay on each park in the state thinking I would create a collection that could highlight the public spaces we love so well. My essay, “Until,” started as one of those essays. Just as I describe in the essay, one day we had a lake at a park completely to ourselves. As we kayaked, I noticed the chaos of sunbleached trunks and limbs along the banks, and among the litter, one determined sapling clinging to a rock, and in that moment, that one image truly did say everything. The violence against my daughter occurred in 2017. I started this essay in 2021. I finished it in 2025.

The second inspiration is my daughter who survived the attack. She is the strongest human being I have ever known. She is still in the healing process as complex PTSD has no easy fix. Along her healing journey, she completed her PhD and wrote a book of poetry about her experience as a victim and a survivor. The book was published, and my daughter uses it and her expertise on trauma-informed education to advocate for other survivors. She has taught me about the importance of using my own voice, so a large part of my inspiration for writing this piece is to honor her bravery by being brave, too.

WOW:  Do you have any thoughts or advice for writing about difficult things?

Kelly: There was a right time for me. I had to wait until I could articulate the horror we had lived through with utter honesty. That might not be necessary for every writer, but I had to be patient with myself. It helped me to remember that while not every reader has experienced the same traumatic experience we have, it is a sad fact that nearly everyone understands trauma in some personal way.

WOW:  What writing projects are you working on right now? What’s next for you?

Kelly: Aside from the Virginia State Parks essay collection, I am completing a manuscript for a novel. I self-published a novel not long ago which has been fairly successful. This time, I am going to attempt traditional publishing.


WOW:  Thanks so much for chatting with us today, Kelly. Before you go can you share a favorite writing tip or piece of advice?

Kelly: I have to give myself permission to take risks in my writing, to allow form and content to complement each other in nontraditional ways. Not only has this permission helped me create more pleasing products, it has made the process more fun and having fun is so important. Thank you for having me on.

***




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