Authoring Onward Connie B. Dowell

On this episode of Authoring Onward, I chat with Emily Jon Tobias about gesture in writing, her winding path to publication, and so much more!







This is going to be one of the final episodes of Authoring Onward. We have had a great run, but as both Joy and I are moving on to new adventures, it’s time to say goodbye for now. We will still have the archive of episodes up for the foreseeable future! A farewell episode is in the works.







About Emily:















Emily Jon Tobias is an American author and poet with her debut story collection, MONARCH, forthcoming by Black Lawrence Press on May 17, 2024.  She is an award-winning writer whose work has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, along with other honorable mentions, and has been featured in various literary journals and magazines.  Midwestern-raised, she now lives and writes on the coast of Southern California where she is at work on her debut novel and other projects.  She holds a Master of Fine Arts in Writing from Pacific University Oregon.







Emily’s website







See Joy’s editorial services and more.

This week, I chatted with Cynthia Newberry Marten about so many things: releasing books close together, writing characters at different ages and stages, and her 50-state book tour. Wow!







Have a listen.







About Cynthia







Cynthia Newberry Martin’s (she/her/hers) first novel, Tidal Flats, won the Gold Medal in Literary Fiction at the 2020 Independent Publisher Book Awards and the 14th Annual National Indie Excellence Award for Fiction. Her website features the How We Spend Our Days series, over a decade of essays by writers on their lives. She grew up in Atlanta and now lives in Columbus, Georgia, with her husband, and in Provincetown, Massachusetts, in a little house by the water. Her third novel, The Art of Her Life, will be published in June of 2023.







Cynthia’s website







Get in touch







My editing and coaching services







Joy’s editing and coaching services

This week, Joy and I had a great chat with Marjorie Hudson about writing southern fiction as a transplant to the south, finding a writing community, and so much more! Have a listen for a great chat and an excerpt of her work.







About Marjorie:







“I grew up in the North,” Marjorie says, “but I got here as fast as I could.”















Marjorie Hudson was born in a small town in Illinois and raised in Washington, D.C., where she graduated from American University with a degree in Journalism and Women’s Studies. After serving as features editor of National Parks Magazine, she moved to rural North Carolina, working as a freelance writer with a column interviewing nature photographers and publishing articles in Garden & Gun, American Land Forum, Wildlife in North Carolina, Our State Magazine, and North Carolina Literary Review. As copyediting chief for Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, she encountered the work of contemporary Southern writers such as Jill McCorkle, Kaye Gibbons, and Clyde Edgerton for the first time. Inspired, she turned her hand to fiction writing, and her first story won a statewide award judged by Shannon Ravenel. She earned an MFA from Warren Wilson College. She lives with her husband, Sam, and feisty small terrier DJ, on a century farm in North Carolina, where she mentors writers and reads poetry to trees. 







Marjorie’s website







Get in touch:







My editorial services







Joy’s editorial services

We’re back for Spring 2023! And for the first episode of the season, I chat with Cheryl King about her historical fiction, the way she finds inspiration by participating in writing contests, and so much more. Have a listen!







About Cheryl:















After 12 years in the newspaper business, I got the teaching bug and became a middle-school language arts teacher. I then got a master’s degree in literacy and served my district as a literacy coach. Now I am a licensed Dyslexia Therapist.







While I have a fulfilling day job, writing is in my blood, and it’s about time I get something published (I’m no spring chicken). When I’m not working, I’m either reading or typing away, trying to create the perfect fiction piece for #NYCMidnight and other writing contests. My debut novel, Sitting on Top of the World (young-adult historical fiction) was published on June 15, 2021, but my publisher closed three weeks later. I have republished my book with a brand-new cover by author and illustrator Jamie Hitt, and some updates inside.







Since republishing, my book was given the amazing honor of winning first place in the YA category in the Eric Hoffer Book Awards. It also won a First Horizon Award for debut authors and was shortlisted for the Grand Prize. I am now working on the sequel, Under the Pawpaw Trees, to be published in 2023.







Cheryl’s website







Wanna get in touch?







My editorial and coaching services







Joy’s editorial and coaching services

This week, Joy and I chatted with my author buddy Michelle Nott about her new book, Teddy Let’s Go, writing quiet books, persistence, pivoting, and so much more! It was a great chat full of lessons for children’s and adult writers alike. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.







Also, this is the last episode of our autumn season. See you in early 2023!







About Michelle:















Michelle Nott is an author, poet, and freelance editor with articles and stories published in numerous online and print publications. Michelle is a member of SCBWI and CBI. Prior to a family move to Belgium, where they lived over a decade, she worked for a French company in the US and France, at an art gallery in NYC, and taught French (PreK – 12 and university levels).







Besides reading and writing, Michelle enjoys spending time with her family cooking, traveling, visiting art museums, taking long walks through the Belgian countryside, hiking along the Cornish coast and snow-shoeing in the French Alps. She currently resides in North Carolina.







Michelle’s poem INIS MEAIN earned an Honorable Mention from Writer’s Digest in their 80th Annual Competition. Michelle has authored two Early Readers: FREDDY, HOPPIE AND THE EYEGLASSES and DRAGON AMY’S FLAMES. Her debut Picture Book, TEDDY LET’S GO!, is available for now (Enchanted Lion Books, Fall 2022).







Get Teddy Let’s Go!







Awesome Announcements from Joy and Me







Joy has book coaching openings starting in late January.







I’ve got coaching and editing openings.







New Novella: Calamity at the Christmas Concert







Joy’s giveaway







New Writer Wellness Gift Pack on her site







Back Episodes on Planning







Doing some 2023 planning for your writing/publishing? Here are some episodes that may help!

This week we talked about writing your passion with Julie Carrick Dalton. Julie writes powerful stories that deal with climate issues. We talked about the value of writing your passion, creating characters readers connect with, and so much more!







About Julie:















Julie Carrick Dalton is the Boston-based author of The Last Beekeeper and Waiting for the Night Song, named a Most Anticipated 2021 novel by CNN, Newsweek, USA Today, Parade, and others, and an Amazon Editor’s pick for Best Books of the Month. A Bread Loaf, Tin House, and GrubStreet Novel Incubator alum, Julie is a frequent speaker on the topic of Fiction in the Age of Climate Crisis at universities, conferences, libraries, and museums. Her writing has appeared in Chicago Review of Books, Orion, Newsweek, The Boston Globe, Electric Literature, Lit Hub, and other publications. When she isn’t writing, you can usually find Julie digging in her garden, skiing, kayaking, or walking her dogs.







Awesome Announcements from Joy and Me







Joy has book coaching openings starting in late January.







I’ve got coaching and editing openings.







New Novella: Calamity at the Christmas Concert







Joy’s giveaway







New Writer Wellness Gift Pack Coming Next Week