Interview with Deborah Svec-Carstens: Q3 2026 Essay Contest Runner Up

Sunday, September 27, 2026
Deborah’s Bio: Deborah Svec-Carstens, J.D., MTS, is a writer, book coach, spiritual director, and former lawyer whose work explores healing after trauma, embodiment, and spirituality. Her essays have appeared in bioStories, the Brevity blog, and the Des Moines Register, and her writing has received recognition from Writer's Digest, WOW! Women on Writing, and Memoir Magazine. Her memoir, Toward the Light: A Year in Paris, forthcoming in September 2026, traces her search for meaning and connection in the weeks and months after a traumatic assault in Paris in her early twenties. She writes The Spiral Staircase on Substack and offers workshops and presentations. Deborah lives in Central Iowa with her spouse, where she writes and accompanies others in their journeys of healing and story. Learn more at www.deborahsveccarstens.com. 

If you haven't done so already, check out Deborah's award-winning essay "Disappearing: A Recipe for Anorexia Nervosa" and then return here for a chat with the author. 

WOW: Congratulations on placing in the Q3 2026 Essay Contest! How did you begin writing your essay and how did it and your writing processes evolve as you wrote? 

Deborah: I’ve written a few pieces about my experience with an eating disorder in my mid-twenties. With this particular essay, I wanted to experiment with structure and try my hand at a hermit crab essay. Adopting the structure of a recipe to convey in the simplest terms how my anorexia had manifested offered room to express emotion without explanation. I also was aware of the irony of using a recipe for something that is so intimately—but not completely—related to food. Once I landed on the recipe structure, the first draft came easily. The ingredients list changed very little as I revised. The instructions evolved and became more detailed as I remembered pieces of my life that related to each of the ingredients. 

WOW: What did you learn about yourself or your writing by creating this essay? 

Deborah: I learned that I could write outside the box and experiment with structure and form. Doing so frees up a part of my creative mind that allows me to go deeper into a topic without needing to overexplain for the reader. 

WOW: Thank you for sharing your experience crafting your essay and experimenting with form and structure. I’ve always found it amazing that using a formal structure – like a hermit crab essay – can be so freeing! Could you please tell us more about the connection between story and healing – for yourself and/or others you’ve worked with? 

Deborah: I write to better understand myself and the world around me. My debut memoir, Toward the Light: A Year in Paris, published on September 15, 2026. The process of writing the book, which recounts the first steps toward healing after a traumatic assault in Paris, has been a healing one. Putting the story on the page and examining it from a distance allowed me to make meaning of my experience. When I write about my past, as I did in the essay for this contest, I connect to my younger self with compassion, make sense of my life experiences, and come to know myself on a deeper level. Sharing my story offers an opportunity to connect and heal, for me and hopefully for readers. Working with a coach during the process of writing my book inspired me to seek certification as a book coach in memoir. As a book coach, I offer steady support, honest feedback, and clear direction to women who are holding a story they’re not sure they can tell, so they can turn what their body carries into the memoir only they could write. 

WOW: Congratulations on your book publication! And thank you for sharing how writing helps to heal what the body carries. Which creative nonfiction essays or writers have inspired you most, and in what ways did they inspire you? 

Deborah: Cheryl Strayed’s Wild, Maggie Smith’s You Could Make this Place Beautiful, Carolyn Knapp’s Appetites, and Roxane Gay’s Hunger are memoirs I have returned to for their structure and their vulnerable writing that draws the reader into the story. Chelsey Clammer’s essay collections and her classes through WOW! have inspired me to play and experiment with my own essay writing. In a recent writing class, the instructor assigned Jo Ann Beard’s excellent essay, “The Fourth State of Matter,” which was published in The New Yorker in 1996. It is a master class on using a braided narrative structure. 

WOW: That is a fabulous list of inspiring memoirists. If you could tell your younger self anything about writing, what would it be? 

Deborah: Years ago, when I was in law school, I handed a paper to my advising professor after revising it and added a note to thank him for helping me shape it into a “publishable” piece. He returned the paper with red question marks beside my statement—clearly indicating his doubt in my work. Those question marks haunted me for a long time. I hesitated to call myself a writer. I would tell my younger self these things: It’s never too late to start writing. At times it will be hard and you will want to quit. Keep going. Writing is a solitary endeavor, but we are not meant to do it alone. Find a community of writers to support you. 

WOW: Thank you for sharing that excellent advice. Anything else you’d like to add? 

Deborah: Thanks to the team at WOW! for all the work they put into their contests and the ways they support women writers. I especially appreciate the useful feedback I’ve received on the essays I’ve submitted over the last few years. 

WOW: You are very welcome! And thank you for sharing your experience with WOW. 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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Finding Humor Within Myself

Thursday, September 24, 2026

I could write many humorous pieces about these two.

 

Last Friday I had the joy of helping WOW! instructor Ashley Harris with her webinar on writing situational humor. I knew it would be best if I had a notebook handy while she was teaching, and I was right. Though I don’t normally consider myself skilled at writing humor, after penning some essays that delved into painful family dynamics and true crime recently, I was ready to switch things up. 

You won’t be surprised to learn I came away with three solid ideas thanks to Ashley’s prompts. In one prompt, she shared an image of a national women’s magazine cover and students were tasked to write ten sentences inspired by one of the article titles. I zeroed in on “Quick and Easy Dinners.” I began scribbling immediately. When both kids were living at home, making dinner every night was anything quick and easy for a variety of reasons. The other three members of my family have an allium intolerance, meaning onions, scallions and garlic cause them abdominal discomfort and bloating, among other symptoms. My daughter always had sensory issues with certain foods. And I feel like I’ve been off and on Weight Watchers for the past 10 years. The beginning of this humor piece practically wrote itself. Quick and easy, my foot! 

Another prompt had me scribbling down instructions on how to pet sit my two dogs. By exaggerating a few of the details, the list that currently resides on my computer could easily turn into a humor piece. One of my rescue dogs has heart valve damage because her previous owner didn’t give her preventative heartworm medication. As a result, she takes Viagra every eight hours. Yes, you read that right. How is that not going to make a pet sitter chuckle? 

Another prompt involved taking a serious event that happened to us recently and making it funny. I’ve recently been diagnosed with high blood pressure, and the first day I was taking the prescribed dose of medication I became loopy and out of sorts. I probably shouldn’t have been driving. Then I had to move my husband’s SUV in the driveway while two A/C repairman stood in the yard (because of course our air conditioning had broken down). 

Here’s what I was able to draft about that experience: 

The two young A/C repairman stood in front of our house trying to ignore the sight of a flustered, middle-aged woman trying desperately to repark a Jeep Grand Cherokee in her short, slightly uphill, concrete driveway. Through the open windows (it was, after all, a scorching hot afternoon in the south), they heard the vehicle beeping at me because I had decided not to buckle myself in. I also refused to move the seat, and my husband is eight inches taller than me. I put the car in reverse, or so I thought, because it was really in neutral. It vrooomed loudly in response. Bless their hearts. They probably thought I had already started drinking for the day. 

You get the picture. I have so many other life events that I could turn into humor pieces. Like the time I was walking around the grocery store with my blouse inside out before a kind woman clued me in. Or the day the back windshield broke on our SUV when we were driving home from the beach. We rigged the open space with beach chairs, bungee cords, and beach towels, and of course it rained the entire five hours back. This is why I can’t recommend the instructors here at WOW! enough. Not only that, but we cracked one another up while sharing these story ideas. Sometimes it’s good to be able to laugh at ourselves in this crazy journey of life. It’s good for the soul. 

Have you written any humor pieces lately? I’d love to hear about them! 

Renee Roberson is an award-winning writer who also produces the true crime podcast, Missing in the Carolinas. She’s teaching a class on how to write Short, Twisty Suspense on Oct. 2 if you’d like to check it out.
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L.S. Delorme Giveaway - Fanning Fireflies

Wednesday, September 23, 2026

Fanning Fireflies by LS Delorme

I'm excited to announce another chance to dive into the Limerence universe with a visit from Lexy Delorme a.k.a. L.S. Delorme. Lexy shares a bit about the evolution of her series, promoting her writing at Comic-Con and why writers should think like business people. Don't miss a giveaway of Fanning Fireflies, her paranormal novel with a historical fiction twist.

More about the Book, Fanning Fireflies:

There is something rotting in Harrisville.

It's 1944 and Veronica works so she can afford to eat. Maybe one day she will save enough to own the home her family is living in, but for now, she doesn't have time for fanciful thoughts, or much else. She doesn't have time for the fire whispering to her, the ghosts trying to talk to her and the son of her boss, who can't stop staring at her. She definitely doesn't have time to think about Lazlo, the handsome black soldier that she processed at the draft office, but she can't seem to stop herself. As her ability to ignore Lazlo evaporates, so does her self-imposed ignorance about her hometown. There is, and always has been, something rotten in Harrisville. It shouldn't have been a surprise. After all, Veronica works in the cigarette factory, where corpses hide in the tobacco with the roaches.

Limerent Publishing
Print length: 238 pages
ISBN-13: 979-8987488041

Purchase your copy on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Bookshop. You'll also want to add it to your GoodReads reading list.

About the Author, L.S. Delorme:

Author Lexy Shaw Delorme (writing as L.S. 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
TikTok: @LexyShawDelorme

Learn more about Lexy on Upcoming Podcasts:







--Interview by Jodi M. Webb

WOW: You lived in France when the first Limerent book was released, recently moved to England, have heavily promoted (and won some awards) for your series in several countries and are also promoting in the US. Most authors are intimidated by the idea of promoting their book in one country. How have you balanced multiple countries? 

Lexy: It has probably helped that my life has been nomadic since I was a girl because my father was in the U.S. Navy. In my life, the longest I have lived in one place was 8 years, and that just happened with my move to Paris. However, the city I have lived in longest collectively is London. Until I was in high school, I never lived anywhere for more than 2 years. Later, I did new-country entry for a financial services company. I oversaw coordinating team members across three continents. What I learned from that, and what has stayed with me, is the importance of culture in doing anything.

I think one of the mistakes people outside of the U.S. make when marketing to the U.S. is the assumption that there is one U.S. culture. There isn’t. People wouldn’t make that mistake when thinking about the EU countries. Everyone knows that Germany and France are very different cultures. But the U.S. has something like 11 different cultures. Oregon is as different from Alabama as France is from Germany. So when you market, you need to market more regionally. In Europe, there is a huge challenge with language. I have yet to find someone to do a good translation of my books into French, and my husband is French ☺.

WOW: I think many authors in the US may fail to appreciate the different cultures within the US. How do you prepare for dealing with different likes and expectations in different regions?

Lexy: I think it’s all about knowing where you are on a cultural bell curve. And it’s about setting
expectations. When I was doing international work, one of the tools that we used to assess whether people would succeed or not was measuring them against a list of identical questions that were asked of people living in that culture. There were two factors that played in favour of sending someone on an international assignment.

One of them was that they fit very squarely in the centre of the bell curve for beliefs and attitudes of the country in question. And that seems very intuitive. The other one was less intuitive. People who did not fit in the centre of the bell curve in their own culture also tended to do well in other countries. I described it as the “I’m weird in my own country, so I’ll be equally weird in another country” strategy. There are certain adaptation skills that people learn in those circumstances.

So, when you apply that to where you want to sell your books or how you want to do your marketing, it makes sense to market to groups where your story and its themes resonate. However, you may find more passionate readers in areas where your story and themes are rarer, and you then aim for the smaller groups of readers who might exist in less likely areas or groups. I try to have an 80/20 approach to this.

WOW: Is it difficult balancing both writing and promoting at the same time? 

Lexy: Yes, it is incredibly difficult. How I have started approaching it is keeping a lot of my marketing and PR in certain seasons. I am usually asked to have a table at the big Comic Cons in London and New York. These occur in May and October, so I try to have new book releases in either May or October, and I arrange other in-person appearances to match that.

But I have to be honest, I’m still not great at the online, social media stuff. I do it, but I always feel vaguely like I’m failing at it because I just can’t force myself to post regularly. I also don’t really separate my work and personal social media presence. People always say to do that, but it feels like so much additional work to me that it doesn’t really seem needed or worth it. Maybe I will change my mind about this going forward, but for now, I’m trying to keep social media simpler. I do have chat groups with some of my more active readers and reviewers ☺.

WOW: Can you tell us a little more about appearing at Comic Con events? Having never been, I always thought of it as more comics and graphic novels. But it seems it’s so much more. What are the advantages of being an author at a Comic-Con event?

Lexy: Comic Cons are now a significant part of my marketing strategies. A lot of people who attend
Comic Cons are the sort of people who would like books. Most of the Comic Cons have a section for books and writers. At the MCM Comic Cons, these are called “Writers Block.” 

These events are incredibly popular. And it’s important to note that they are not just about comics anymore. It’s more of a popular culture celebration. There are people presenting who are from all manner of the arts: movies, TV, gaming, books, publishing, fashion, painting, drawing and a whole host of other creative endeavours. This attracts not just a lot of people but a lot of diverse types of people.

And I do mean lots. The London Comic Con usually has around 135,000 people over three days. The New York Comic Con can be up to 250,000 people over four days. So, they are very serious events from the perspective of visibility and marketing, but also sales. It is also a culture that celebrates diversity and independence. I feel very at home at them.

WOW: Those are amazing numbers! So many authors have problems with the marketing portion of being a writer, but you’ve taken to it like a duck to water. Do you have any advice for introverted writers about promoting their writing?

Lexy: Maybe I’ve taken to it because I don’t really think of it as “marketing.” In my head, I just
think of it as meeting people. Like a lot of introverts, I struggle with doing posts on social media or pushing my books to an anonymous audience. But with reviewers and with readers who show up at events, it becomes more of a personal interaction…and I find people fascinating.

It also takes making the effort to bring out the part of your personality that is more extroverted. I grew up as a Navy brat, which means we travelled a lot. I had to learn how to present in an extroverted way, even though I get my energy by being alone. So, I look at marketing as talking to people, telling them about my stories, hearing about their stories, and connecting.

WOW: That is such a helpful mindset, it makes promotion feel more personal and something to look forward to as an author. In the past, you’ve said that writers should treat their books as if they are a small business owner. How does that help authors?

Lexy: I’ve seen a lot of writers beat themselves up over sales, or lack thereof. They will put a book
out there and then be gutted when no one reads it after a year on Amazon. The problem is that nobody knows about it. That’s where marketing and visibility come in. Business people know this.

If you do a startup, which is what you are essentially doing when you publish a book, there is a life cycle to that. It is actually a pretty well-known life cycle, and it has predictable steps. At the end of the day, it takes roughly 5 years to start making profits. In the beginning, you come up with an idea, create a minimum viable product, and invest your own money to get it out there. You may get “love money” from family and friends to help. You create a marketing strategy, you find where your people are, you look for different channels for visibility, etc., etc.

You do that whether you are making a widget or selling a book. That’s why I think it’s valuable for people to read a book about creating a startup as opposed to just reading about how to publish your book. In business, I did quite a few startups. And not all of them worked. But 100% of the ones that worked were ones that managed their expectations of success and timing.

WOW: Today you're giving away a copy of Fanning Fireflies. I enjoyed the melding of historical fiction and paranormal in Fanning Fireflies. You’ve delved into your characters visiting other time periods and worlds in other books. As a writer, do you find the ability to travel between worlds/times stretches your writing abilities? Do your characters act/speak differently in different worlds, or are they similar no matter where/when they end up?

Lexy: In my series, that’s actually a remarkably interesting question because some of my books deal with the concept of whether a soul has a recognisable personality that stays the same across lifetimes. I have spreadsheets dedicated not just to a character’s behaviours and speaking patterns, but also to the patterns that appear and change over lifetimes. As the series continues, the reader sees more of the ways in which the past has impacted the present reality of existence. It also touches on the future.

WOW: I can't imagine the challenge of keeping a character authentic, not just for one book but through multiple books and future lifetimes. Speaking of the future, congratulations on the upcoming release of Mirrored Lands, book six in the Limerent series, on October 8.

Fanning Fireflies Giveaway

***** BOOK GIVEAWAY *****

Enter to win Fanning Fireflies, a stand alone title from The Limerent Series. Fill out the form below for a chance to win. The giveaway ends October 8th at 11:59 pm CT. We will randomly draw a winner the next day and follow up via email. Good luck! 


Fanning Fireflies Giveaway
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The Me I Used to Be: Blog Tour & Giveaway

Monday, September 21, 2026

The Me I Used to Be by Kristan Higgins

I'm excited to announce the launch of a blog tour for the latest novel by prolific author Kristan Higgins. If you're looking for a book about the complexity of female friendships, growing older, and secrets, you won't be able to stop reading The Me I Used to Be. Join us in celebrating with an author interview and book giveaway.

At their twenty-fifth high school reunion, four former best friends discover that growing up is way messier than anticipated—and the past isn’t nearly as finished as they thought.
​
Back in senior year, Audrey, Micah, Jasmine, and Beck were the Core Four: the lucky one, the beautiful one, the smart one, the sporty one. They had color-coded dreams, inside jokes, and a lifelong friendship they thought would last forever. But graduation night ended in a tragic accident, followed by the kind of silence that stretches for decades.
​
Now, they’ve returned for their reunion, each carrying a life that looks nothing like the glossy future they imagined. There are stalled careers, complicated marriages, outspoken adult children, and secrets that never fit into holiday cards. For one of them, a diagnosis of early-onset dementia turns the weekend into a ticking clock.
​
Across one unforgettable weekend, the Core Four must decide if their past can still change their future together.

https://cozyhomedelight.com/reviews

But before we get to that, here's more about her book:

Lake Union Publishing (September 15, 2026)
AISN: B0G59SKB4J
ASIN: B0FXBCYPVK   
ISBN-10: 1662537999
ISBN-13: 978-1662537998    
Print length:  347 pages

Purchase your copy on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Books-a-Million and Bookshop. You'll also want to add it to your GoodReads reading list.

About the Author, Kristan Higgins

Kristan Higgins is the author of more than twenty novels, all of which were New York Times and/or USA Today bestsellers, much to her surprise and delight. Her books have been translated into two dozen languages and have sold millions of copies worldwide, receiving dozens of awards and accolades, including starred reviews from Entertainment Weekly, People, The New York Journal of Books, Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and Booklist.
​
A smitten grandmother and the mother of two delightful adult children, Kristan enjoys gardening, mixology, the national parks and being overly helpful to strangers. She lives in Connecticut but is often on Cape Cod with her heroic firefighter husband, a rambunctious dog and their indifferent cat.

-- Review by Jodi M. Webb

In The Me I Used to Be, the friend group are four women who have know each other for decades (although they are estranged at the time of their reunion). These are well developed characters. Their personalities could have revolved around their nicknames - the pretty one, the athlete, the lucky one, the smart one - but author Kristan Higgins made them much more than that. In fact each woman seems to have two personalities, the person people expect her to be and who she really is. I felt this made the women incredibly realistic and I find myself playing the "Which one am I?" game.

Although the book takes place during the group's 25th high school reunion weekend, there are really three timelines. The events of the weekend, the events from 25 years ago that splintered the group and the hidden crisis each woman is secretly living through. Because of this, the book jumps between time periods as well as changing point of view so each woman can tell her own story. This format seemed complex in the beginning but, as I got caught up in the story, I was surprised at how easy it was to make the shift to different characters and their stories. The shifting point of view (conveniently announced at the beginning of each chapter) pushed me to keep reading, to learn how different characters experienced the same event.

Although there are many sad moments in The Me I Used to Be, it is not a tearjerker. Like life, it combines sad moments with silliness, love, redemption, new beginnings. I feel readers will identify with this book because the characters are grappling with issues that we are all familiar with: mortality, the elusiveness of friendship, the road not taken, balancing parenthood with your own happiness. I'm guessing every reader will find herself within the pages of this novel - I know I did.

The Me I Used to Be Blog Tour

-- Blog Tour Calendar

September 21st @ The Muffin
Join us as we celebrate the launch of the The Me I Used to Be by Kristan Higgins. Read a review and enter the giveaway.

September 22nd @ A Wonderful World Of Words
Read an excerpt of Kristan Higgins' latest novel The Me I Used to Be. 

September 24th @ All Things Writing
Learn what Caitrin thinks about the latest Kristan Higgins novel, The Me I Used to Be.

September 25th @ Chapter Break 
Enter a giveaway for The Me I Used to Be by Kristan Higgins.

September 29th @ Cozy Home Delights 
Ashley reviews Kristan Higgin's story of the power of friendship in The Me I Used to Be.

September 30th @ What Is That Book About
Get a sneak peek at Kristan Higgins' latest with an excerpt of The Me I Used to Be.

October 2nd @ Words by Webb
Jodi shares her thoughts on The Me I Used to Be by Kristan Higgins.

October 6th @ A Storybook World
Need a new read for a new month? Today's spotlight is on The Me I Used to Be.

October 12 @ Musings of a Literary Wanderer
Stop by for a review of The Me I Used to Be by Kristan Higgins.

October 14th @ Boys' Mom Reads!
Enjoy an excerpt of the latest Kristan Higgins novel: The Me I Used to Be.

October 17th @ Boots, Shoes and Fashion
Find out what Linda enjoyed about The Me I Used to Be.

***** BOOK GIVEAWAY *****

Enter to win The Me I Used to Be by Kristan Higgins. Fill out the form below for a chance to win. The giveaway ends October 4th at 11:59 pm CT. We will randomly draw a winner the next day and follow up via email. Good luck!


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Interview with Elizabeth Hoban: Q3 2026 CNF Essay Contest Runner Up

Sunday, September 20, 2026
Elizabeth is a traditionally published author of The Secrets That Save Us and The Cheech Room, and a historical nonfiction novel, The Final Mission, a Boy, a Pilot and a World at War. She has written numerous newspaper and magazine articles over the years. She has won several writing awards, including Bethlehem Writers Circle Best in Prose 2018, Writers Digest runner-up in Memoir 2019, Millennium runner-up for Best in Prose 2023, and Reedsy first-place award for two short stories and two short-listed. Her first winning story appears in 2025 Reedsy Anthology. She received the Miriam Chaiken Award for Best in Prose 2025, and is the 2026 guest judge for same. She won Women on Writing (WOW) Q3 Essay Contest Award 2025, as well as 3rd place in WOW 2026 Q1 Flash Fiction and 2nd place in WOW Q2 Flash Fiction.

Aside from writing, Elizabeth is a Nurse Practitioner who loves spending time with her kids and her four-legged antidepressants. She doubts any of her 6 adult kids have ever read her work – maybe her cat Seuss based on his pedigree.

--interview by Marcia Peterson

WOW: Congratulations on placing as a runner up in our Q3 2026 Creative Nonfiction essay competition! What inspired you to write “Boys and Noise?”

Elizabeth: Thank you so much and congratulations to the other winners and runners-up! This is a true story that happened to me when I lived in Baltimore and was raising boys as a widowed mom. The difficulties of raising kids as a single parent are numerous – and I have always said that the ratio of kids in the home should never be greater than the authority figures. I obviously didn’t heed my own rules!

WOW: We’d love to know more about your writing routines. Could you tell us when and where you usually write? Do you have favorite tools or habits that get you going?

Elizabeth: I write in the evening, after I've finished my other work and chores. Most writers say they hone their skills in the early morning, when one’s mind is fresh, but that has never worked for me. My biggest tool isn't watching television or reading books (I save those for audio on my commute because I love reading). If I watch television or read someone else’s novels when I should be writing, I feel guilty. I try to write for a couple of hours before bed every day but Sundays. I save Sundays for anything but writing – spending time with my family, reading books, streaming movies, cooking, etc.

Then come Monday, I am back behind my laptop.

WOW: You’ve also placed our flash fiction contests, and have written fiction and nonfiction in various forms and lengths. Do you find one more challenging than the others? Are you drawn to one form more than the others?

Elizabeth: I find creative nonfiction a bit more challenging because it must be steeped in reality – a memoir or anecdote. I am my own worst critic, so writing about myself is sometimes difficult to wrap my head around. I think it’s why I tend to write humor when writing about my own life experiences. That offsets the awkwardness of it.

WOW: Is there a particular memoir you think everyone needs to read?

Elizabeth: If I am being honest, my favorite memoir is one I wrote about my dad’s experiences in WW2 as a B-17 pilot and POW. It is not my story, but nevertheless, because it’s true, it’s riveting and fascinating because we didn’t know the whole truth of my dad’s story until he was in his 90s. The Final Mission, a Boy, a Pilot, and a World at War, published by Westholme 2017 (audio and hardcover). That book was a labor of love for sure!
 
WOW: Thanks so much for chatting with us today, Elizabeth. Before you go, do you have any tips for our readers who may be thinking about entering writing contests?

Elizabeth: Yes – enter away! Nothing to lose but a few dollars – you get better every time you enter – and WOW is the best because they offer a critique at such a low fee. And those critiques are honestly the very best – super thorough and very helpful. Worth the extra few bucks, 100%!!

***  
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Creating Trust Helps Make Sales

Thursday, September 17, 2026

 


Earlier in the week, I was listening to Susan Friedman’s Book Marketing Mentor’s Podcast. Her podcast is all about how we can market our books effectively. Many but not all of her clients are independently published. Her guest for the week was Scott Carley who teaches managers how to tell who on their team or in their department has a good trust score. He was talking with Susan about how these things apply to selling your book. You can find her podcast episode here. 

As I listened to how trust in your book and in you, the author, can help sell your book to readers, I quickly realized that it also applies to selling a publisher or agent on your writing. Here is how three of the five points that Carley teaches his clients to examine apply to your query.

Vibe 

As defined by Carley, this is all about the feeling that someone gets from your book. The cover is often the first thing they notice, and it has to make a good impression. What does this have to do with your query? We no longer send out queries on quality stationary, but we can make sure that they are well organized and easy to read. Good organization and white space are a must. 

Motives 

Carley explained that people aren’t going to buy your book or class if you are simply trying to make money vs giving them something of value. The same is true of the editors and agents you query. You have to be able to show them that this is a topic you are passionate about, and your book offers something of value to the reader. This might be a piece of nonfiction that solves a problem for the reader or a novel that takes the reader on a compelling journey. You don’t want the agent to think you are just writing a romantasy because you’ve heard they are a great way to make money. 

Expertise 

This is the one that gets tricky. Carley explains that what you know is important. And it can’t just be what you know. If this is nonfiction, show that you’ve done research right there in the text. “A 2025 study at MIT revealed . . .” In your query, you can include some of the most important sources. “My research includes scientific findings from 23 academic journals including the Journal of the American Psychological Association and the Journal of Culture and Education.” 

Your expertise will also include whatever hands-on experience that you have. Carley explains that this last part is vital. Research is good, but what is your personal experience with the topic? 

A problem in any one of these areas can present a problem. If your query is poorly organized, no one will know what your book is about. If this isn’t a topic that means something to you, it is going to come across as something you’ve developed just to make money and having zero hands-on experience in an area is going to exacerbate this impression. It may be a mistaken impression, but you need to make certain your motivation and expertise shine through. 

How does your query letter score when you examine it for these topics? Your manuscript? Your independently published book? Your website? Building trust is key at all of these points and more. 

--SueBE

Sue Bradford Edwards' is the author of over 80 books for young readers. To find out more about her writing, visit her site and blog.

She is also the instructor for 3 WOW classes which begin on the first Monday of every month. She teaches:

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.
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Interview with Mary Beth McGruder: Spring 2026 Flash Fiction Contest 1st Place Winner

Tuesday, September 15, 2026
Mary Beth McGruder is a native Nashvillian who moved to the North Carolina coast in 2024. She writes upmarket fiction, often with speculative elements, about grief, love, and the things families hand down without meaning to. Before turning to writing full time, she spent more than twenty-five years in user experience design and product storytelling. Recently signed with The Bent Agency, she is revising her debut novel for submission to publishers. She lives near the water with her husband, Bryan, and their Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, Mrs. Bigglesworth, and is at work on her next novel. Learn more at www.marybethmcgruder.com.

--interview by Marcia Peterson

WOW: Congratulations on winning first place in our Spring 2026 Flash Fiction competition! What inspired you to write your story, “Sixteen Hours From Now?”

Mary Beth: The story started with the phrase “sixteen hours from now, yesterday.” I loved the contradiction of time moving forward and backward at once and started wondering what kind of story could grow from it. I had also read the six-word story “For sale: baby shoes, never worn,” often mistakenly attributed to Hemingway, and was amazed by how much sadness could be conveyed in so few words. That became my challenge: to write a very short, tragic story about a grieving mother trapped between trying to change the past and moving forward, reliving that choice over and over.

WOW: You mention in your bio that your writing often includes speculative elements, as your flash piece does. What do you like about speculative fiction?

Mary Beth: For me, speculative fiction scratches the “what if” itch. What if a watch you buried suddenly appeared in your hand? What if you were caught in a time loop, reliving the same choice over and over? I love starting with the world as we know it, adding one impossible thing, and seeing what it reveals about the characters. Grief can make time feel circular. Regret can make us replay the same moment again and again. Speculative fiction allows me to make those internal experiences literal on the page and explore very real emotions from a slightly off-kilter angle.

WOW: What advice would you give to someone wanting to try writing flash fiction for the first time?

Mary Beth: Flash fiction is a wonderful way to experiment with different voices and writing styles. I tend to write very place-specific, voice-forward stories, often with a Southern setting. For this contest, I chose to write something more interior and atmospheric, with the quality of a fever dream and a slightly British sensibility. My advice would be to use the short form as an opportunity to take a creative risk. Focus on one moment, include only the details the reader truly needs, and trust them to understand what you leave unsaid. A flash piece should feel compressed, but still complete.

WOW: You’re also currently working on a novel. Can you tell us anything about it, and what your novel writing journey has been like so far?

Mary Beth: My novel, The Letters No One Signed, is upmarket fiction with speculative elements. It follows a forty-six-year-old woman who returns to her late mother’s Tennessee farmhouse planning to sell it and leave again. Instead, she inherits a pregnant barn cat and a growing line of ghosts who want her to write letters to the living on their behalf. The one voice she most wants to hear, her mother’s, remains silent.

I began writing seriously after retiring from a career in user experience design and product storytelling. I had no formal background in writing, although I have been a voracious reader my entire life. I was learning to write while I was writing, and I had a handful of earlier manuscripts rejected along the way. Some were not as well written as I believed at the time. Others sagged in the middle, lacked tension, or had query letters that did not accurately reflect the manuscript. But each one taught me something.

When I finished The Letters No One Signed, I knew it was special and the best thing I had written. This summer, I signed with Jenny Bent and James Mustelier of The Bent Agency, and I’m now preparing to revise the novel with their guidance before it goes on submission to publishers. My best advice is to keep writing. If you stay with it, the lessons begin to come together on the page.

WOW: Thanks so much for chatting with us today, Mary Beth. Before you go, do you have any tips for our readers who may be thinking about entering writing contests?
Mary Beth: My first tip is simply to enter. Do not wait until you are certain your work is good enough, because most writers are never entirely certain. Look for contests with a prompt, word count, or set of guidelines that excites you. Read some of the previous winning entries to get a feel for the contest, then use its constraints to push yourself in a new direction. Follow the submission rules, stay within the word count, and proofread one last time before you hit send. But remember, the goal is not to write something perfect. It is to write something that lands. Judging is subjective, and a story that does not connect with one reader may be exactly the story another reader has been waiting for.

Contests have given me deadlines, helped me find my voice, and offered welcome validation without requiring me to tackle an entire novel. I’m answering these questions today because of a story that won, but I’ve written many, many more that didn’t win. My number one tip: keep writing!
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Interview with Nicole Brogdon: Q3 2026 Creative Nonfiction Essay Contest Runner Up

Sunday, September 13, 2026

With her runner-up essay in the Q3 2026 Creative Nonfiction Essay contest, "Big Fist: What to do When the US Begins Bombing Your Immigrant Husband's Home Country", Nicole Brogson gives readers a uniquely personal perspective of an event that to many of us was just a far removed event, a flash on our daily newsfeed.


Nicole Brogdon is an Austin TX trauma therapist interested in strugglers and stories, with fiction in Vestal Review, Cincinnati Rev, Cleaver, Flash Frontier, Bending Genres, Centaur, SoFloPoJo, Cafe Irreal, etc. Best Microfiction 2024, Best Microfiction 2025. 


You can find Nicole on Bluesky @NBrogdonWrites! 


WOW: Your essay "Big Fist: What to do When the US Begins Bombing Your Immigrant Husband’s Home Country" begins on the first day of the United States bombing of Iran in February 2026. But it feels like it has bigger themes. Family. Distance. When you read your essay what do you feel it's about?



Nicole: In non-fiction connected to a world event, it’s important and tricky to find a personal way into the story, without culturally appropriating someone else’s experience. Perspective. Being respectful of even a spouse’s subjective emotional experience. It’s equally important to find a subjective human personal resonance, compassion, with many of the troubling political issues that are afloat in this time. 



For this essay, I wanted very much to empathize with immigrants in this country, whose birth countries are experiencing war and conflict far away. Of course, on a personal level, I have a dear husband who migrated from Iran, and many Iranians in my life. Being an immigrant is a special kind of split consciousness. We can all relate to that split experience, as humans – childhood “Home”, and where we are now, as Adult individuals— particularly since we are all born from generations, immigrants, and travelers who embarked on a great journey. People traveled far, physically, geographically, genetically, to result in the “I” who is here now. Myths and stories are about journeys, our personal psychology is a journey, and our genetic histories as individuals, no matter how far back we need to go to find migration, are rooted in journeys.

 


WOW: Is there a common theme to your writing or do you write about many different topics?



Nicole: I am particularly interested in struggles. In fact, I have a flash piece in the lit magazine Ghost Parachute called “Strugglers”, that’s dear to my heart. The human condition is struggle. Fiction, of course is interested in heroes’ journeys, conflicts, struggles. There are many small, absurd struggles, too, in our everyday lives, even if we’re lucky enough to have relative comfort. 



Absurdism, surrealism, parables, dark humor, gothic elements, interest me as natural writing elements to use in depicting any of these absurd, perplexing problems of daily life. Dream logic, actual dreams, are rich fodder for our own fiction and poetry writings. I’m interested in the drip, drip of problems and absurd happenings on the characters in my stories. And ultimately, in the resiliency and overcoming of problems. 



WOW: Do you feel your work as a trauma therapist affects your writing?



Nicole: Absolutely. I try not to think of direct individual clients when I’m writing, out of respect for them, for confidentiality, and for my psychotherapist day job. But after 20 years working as a therapist, I believe more acutely what I’ve always believed: Everybody has a story, we just don’t know what it is yet. I tell myself that, when I encounter someone odd, rude, or struggling out in the real world. We don’t know what they’ve been through. We’re welcome to back off, use boundaries, whatever, but, ‘There but for some grace—and luck—for now, go I.



WOW: Do you have any favorite writers? What have you learned from them?



Nicole: I love all the great masters of the prose poems – the inevitable Charles Simon, Russell, Edson, Ada Limon, as well as other poets, such as Jericho Brown. These feel like virtuosos in terms of language. In my early adulthood, I read many Latin American, magical realist writers, particularly Gabriel Garcia Marquez. I love a good novel and someone who is skillful with letting dialogue reveal. I have recently been reading books by the talented Irish writer, John Boyne, as well as more prose poems, for their musicality. 



WOW: Do you belong to any writing communities (virtual or real life)? How do they help you with your writing? 



Nicole: Trusted beta readers help us grow. They need to “get us”, and they are hard to find. Right now, I belong to two different small group writing groups who are invaluable readers and now great friends to me. One group is a trio I formed, after looking for two years for the right people to share work with, in short term online writing classes. I met and subsequently chose these two women whose feedback and writing styles were admirable and resonant for me, in a writers.com online flash fiction class six years ago. The second group was formed by a male colleague at a writing retreat, when at the end, he invited three of us to join him for a monthly zoom meeting/writing exchange. I think it’s important to name the group, creating the feeling of a unified team. Thus, the first group is the Chicas, and the second group is the Moose. Makes me chuckle every time one of us says the group names. 



In both groups, in addition to critical feedback, I hear, and am emphasizing, stylistically what each one of us does best, so that each writer can continue to grow his or her authentic, self-at-best writing voice. Invaluable.



WOW: I find in intriguing that your writing groups concentrate on specific writing pieces but also the broader "this is who I think you are as a writer" question. What are you working on now?



Nicole: I am working on a larger project, called, “Mom Gets Around”, which I first pictured as a “novel in flash“, is now more like a novel, with chapters of varying lengths. 



Conversely, I’m also deeply reattached to reading, studying, and writing prose poems. I’ve had many pieces (that began as prose poems) published in various literary magazines, sometimes as “flash fiction” submissions (when I see, or add in, more escalation).



Of course, a clear distinction is not always obvious between microfiction and prose poem. I do like the freedom of thinking of short pieces as “prose poems”, where I’m able to focus on surreal subjects, lyrical sounds, and poetic language, and get in and get out in a short word count, often about 100–220 words. If it really wants to turn into more of a story, then I think in terms of escalation, adding in or working in three parts, beginning, middle and end, with escalation tending to occur in the middle.



Furthermore, I’ve benefited greatly from the poet Jose Hernandez Diaz’ zoom classes in prose poem (available usually as a package of 4 Sunday classes). He provides a weekly curated reading worksheet, small group discussion, and several in class 10 minute writing prompts—great for developing more writing fluency!



WOW: The idea that your writing has presence, "If it really wants to turn into more a story..." will stay with me. Thanks for your time and we look forward to hearing more from you.

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