Today is book launch day for Write Away: A Year of Musings and Motivations for Writers by Kerrie L. Flanagan and Jenny Sundstedt. Kerrie is the director of Northern Colorado Writers, and Jenny is an NCW member, a valuable part of the NCW conference creative team, and an excellent writer.
I’m not going to say a lot about the authors today, because they have crafted a very funny and very wise interview of themselves for their guest post here on Monday. It’s all about the adventure of collaborating on a writing project, and you won’t want to miss a post that will brighten your morning and make you want to find that perfect writing partner and put together something magical.
So instead, I’ll talk about the result of their effort. Write Away: A Year of Musings and Motivations for Writers is a month-by-month collection of goal-setting pages, essays about the writing process and the writing life, and plain old real-life stories that make us see new ways to approach our writing dreams and overcome the obstacles we confront along the way. Each essay is followed by a question to make the reader think about the message in the piece and how that message relates to his own experience.
With wisdom and humor, these two ladies have done a great job of giving writers a helping hand. Jenny’s voice provides an extra dose of humor, so don’t be surprised to find yourself chuckling at her essays. One of my favorites is “6 Impossible Things” — Jenny converts the Tim Burton Alice in Wonderland goal of believing in six impossible things before breakfast to her own personal list. Number one on the list: “Chocolate can make me thin.”
I plan to adopt Jenny’s whole list.
One of my favorite pieces from Kerrie is “You Know You Are a Writer When…” where she provides the reader with a dozen criteria that will help with finally uttering those wonderful words, “I am a writer.” The first one in the list hit home: “It is impossible for you to read a book without a red pen in hand, so you can edit the already published and edited book.”
I might add, this especially applies to your own published book.
Write Away is available in paperback from amazon.com and from barnesandnoble.com. If you want to request your library order a copy, you can also give them the ISBN: 978-0991062645
Please drop by on Monday to meet Kerrie and Jenny and hear how they formed their partnership and what it’s like for two very different writers to collaborate on a project with such a great result.
Pat, thanks for the wonderful review. (And Jenny, ONLY the cool kids say “shout out”).
Wow Eileen–next to Stephen King and Al Zuckerman–thanks!
Mason, thanks for the good wishes.
Happy Writing everyone!
Great! I can add it to the list to titles to recommend to the fledgling authors who email me for advice. It’s in good company with Stephen King’s “On Writing” and Al Zuckerman’s “Writing the Blockbuster Novel.”
Pat, thank you so much for the wonderful shout-out! (Do the cool kids even say shout out anymore?) The book launch was fun, and it was great to see so many writer friends there, including you 🙂
Patricia, this sounds like a delightful and insightful book. I especially like Jenny’s number one on the list: “Chocolate can make me thin.” Looking forward to their guest post and wishing them much success with this book.
Pat – This sounds like a useful source of inspiration for writers. And anything that helps one get through the writing process with a a laugh or two is a good thing.