Main Topic: Truth-Telling in Fiction and Memoir with Grace Sammon But our conversation spans The Difference Between Telling Your Truth and Owning Your Truth; The Ghostwriter as a Literary Device; and Why Fiction Holds What Memoir Sometimes Can't; Who Owns the Truth and what Silence costs us; invisibility, and relevance. (Really interesting conversation.) PATREON: Thank you to my existing patrons for believing in my work offline and here in the podcast. If you are a patron, in either tier, you get all my content, always. You can support me and my dreams and my writing and my aligned author life for $11.11 USD, and I will be so so grateful. Truly. Heart to heart. Gratitude for your gifts. If you want coaching too (with TWO LIVE CALLS EACH MONTH, you can BACK me at $55.55/mo USD). You will NEVER find coaching sessions for less money than this. If you've ever wanted continued support for your writing and accountability for your projects, this is the way to do it. Become a patron of the arts and of me at Patreon.com/valerieihsan. And you can support my friend and colleague and Visiting Co-Host author Erick Mertz at Patreon.com/strangeairstories for short stories in the paranormal mystery genre. Announcements/Author Updates: designing my next writing retreat in Costa Rica. My first international retreat (even though I live here) so there are a lot more moving pieces than I first imagined. Taking a four-month course to get me through all the legalities and best practices. If you are interested in the updates on the retreat, you can go to valerieihsan.com/retreat. request to bring back a regular patron gathering for all members (paid and unpaid) Mini writing retreat (cozy, candle; oracle card pull to set intention; check-in: 1 struggle, 1 win, what you are working on tonight; guided meditation; writing words; share word count (optional)); PLEASE send me a DM or a comment where you heard this podcast, or in the Patreon community. Let me know if this is something you crave. It's not just shared writing space. It's a retreat from regular life (dishes, dogs, kids, day job) and a safe and sacred space to connect and to write. talking with the architect, nailing down our must-haves half to drive north to sign a document (complications with names and lawyers) What are you reading? Just finished: Soul Sourced Entrepreneur (Christine Kane) Mosswood Apothecary (JP Rindfleisch IX) The Reliable Narrator (Grace Sammon) Back-burner Books: (Still on the stack but haven't finished reading them yet...) Creative Act (Rick Rubin) Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals by Oliver Burkeman; (Main Topic): Notes: 1. As a novelist, a memoirist, and an author looking into offering ghostwriting services, I was super intrigued by many of your talking points in your media kit. I hope we get to talk about all my favorites. Let's start with Why Fiction Holds What Memoir Sometimes Can't. That's a juicy statement! A place for both; memoir is huge right now; tell our story to ourselves first, and then to others next. Hear a story better as fiction sometimes. Why you are writing the book? 2. I'm a sucker for books about authors, and the last novel that had that hook was also about a ghostwriter, what can you say about using the ghostwriter as a literary device? Fascinated by the job and wanted to dive into that; For instance, what is it like to see your book hit the NYT Bestseller List without your name on it? We see her through the stories she's writing. 3. Difference Between Telling the Truth and Owning Your Truth. Experienced childhood abuse, can you hide behind your own story, what are these effects on me, Invisibility starts when you lose your roles and don't have anything to talk about it. Relevance, meaning, purpose. 4. Who Owns the Truth? And What does silence cost us as women and as authors? (GoShiftKey.com, Joelle) And don't forget: Go to valerieihsan.com to schedule a free consultation to see if Aligned Author is right for you. Find Us: Valerie's Linktree: https://linktr.ee/valerieihsan Erick's Linktree link: https://linktr.ee/erickmertzauthor Tools: ProWriting Aid: https://prowritingaid.com/?afid=9378 (affiliate link)

Ask this episode

“What did the council decide on item 42?” — answered with the speaker and the moment.

Transcript

Related