SURPRISE! It’s a Bonus Episode.

Yes, I am officially on summer vacation, working on my novel, and the podcast is on a summer hiatus. So, why am I back in your podcast feed? Because I have a special bonus episode for you!

I want to introduce you to a literary podcast I love to listen to called Black & Published. Hosted by author Nikesha Elise Williams, Black & Published features interviews with novelists, nonfiction writers, poets and playwrights every week. For today’s bonus episode, I’m running a recent episode from Black & Published that I loved.

This episode features an interview with award-winning author, Vanessa Riley. An engineer turned historical romance writer who always centers women of color in her best-selling books, Vanessa Riley has an incredible story of how she started her writing career, and an even more impressive story of how she got the mainstream publishing industry to take her historical romance stories seriously.

This episode centers on her recently released novel about Haiti’s only queen, Marie-Louise Christophe. The book sounds amazing, and this episode is equally amazing.

I hope you enjoy and continue listening to Black & Published wherever you listen to podcasts.

If you want to learn more about Vanessa Riley, visit her website.

If you’re looking for more creative writing inspiration, and useful resources for your literary life, visit ReedWriteandCreate.com.

Sign up for the monthly, Reed, Write, & Create newsletter for literary resources and opportunities delivered right to your inbox.

Don’t buy your books on Amazon, support indie booksellers and shop online at the Reed, Write, & Create bookshop for a list of curated titles by BIPOC authors.

If you’re looking for a better way to organize your writing manuscripts, fiction and nonfiction, consider trying Scrivener. I’ve recently become a Scrivener fan and am using it to write my current novel. Feel free to use my affiliate link to purchase Scrivener and receive 20% off by using the code REEDWRITE.

On episode 32 of the podcast, our final episode of Season 3, I’m going to share a final pep talk meant to get you to stop thinking that you have to do this writing thing all alone.

On today's show, I’m going to dispel the myth of the solitary writer, sharing why it’s a myth, how it got started, why it’s a dangerous myth, who the myth actually benefits, and how we should be handling our writing lives instead.

My hope is that by breaking down the faulty logic behind the solitary writer myth, you writers start to think of your writing practice in new and more expansive ways.

During the episode, you’ll hear how world-famous writers, from Socrates to Shakespeare, were perceived as solitary writers, but they really weren’t. Same story for contemporary writers from Hemingway to Zora Neale Hurston.

So, tune in and enjoy the episode.

This will be our last lit pep talk before we go on summer hiatus. We’ll be back with new episodes in September. Until then, keep writing.

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If you’re looking for more creative writing inspiration, and useful resources for your literary life, visit ReedWriteandCreate.com.

Sign up for the monthly, Reed, Write, & Create newsletter for literary resources and opportunities delivered right to your inbox.

Don’t buy your books on Amazon, support indie booksellers and shop online at the Reed, Write, & Create bookshop for a list of curated titles by BIPOC authors.

If you’re looking for a better way to organize your writing manuscripts, fiction and nonfiction, consider trying Scrivener. I’ve recently become a Scrivener fan and am using it to write my current novel. Feel free to use my affiliate link to purchase Scrivener and receive 20% off by using the code REEDWRITE.

Write On!

On episode 31 of the podcast, I have saved the best for last. Our final author interview this season is with the incomparable, American-Book-Award-winning author, Bernice L. McFadden.

Bernice L. McFadden is the author of over a dozen books, including Sugar and Glorious. Her latest novel, Praise Song for the Butterflies, was long listed for the 2019 Women's Prize in Fiction.

McFadden’s novel, The Book of Harlan won the 2017 American Book Award and the 2017 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work. The New York Times selected her novel Gathering of Waters as one of the 100 Notable Books of 2012 and as an Editor's Choice pick. Glorious was a finalist for the NAACP Image Award and featured in O, The Oprah Magazine.

Currently, McFadden is an Assistant Professor of English at Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana.

During our conversation, Bernice and I discuss:

• The highs and lows of her decades-long literary career.
• How she kept writing when faced with multiple rejections and editors telling her that there was no market for Black authors writing literary fiction.
• Why she decided to start writing “humorous erotica” under the pen name Geneva Holliday.
• How Toni Morrison impacted her early career.
• The roles spirit and synchronicity have played in her writing practice.

If you’re looking for a dynamite episode that will keep you motivated to keep writing, then press play and enjoy!

To learn more about Bernice McFadden, follow her on Facebook and Instagram. Her website is currently under construction, in anticipation of her new memoir, First Born Girls due on shelves in 2025.

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If you are a BIPOC woman writer looking for even more literary inspiration and motivation, not to mention a highly supportive community of BIPOC sister scribes, then you should apply to be a member of the RWC Sanctuary.

The Sanctuary is a private writing community specifically for BIPOC women writers, who take their writing seriously. Novelists, poets, memoirists, short story writers and nonfiction writers, are welcome to apply. Inside the Sanctuary we help our members get paid, get published, and reach all of their writing goals.

For more information, visit The Sanctuary page on the Reed Write and Create website. But don’t delay, because we’ll be closing our doors to new members on June 1 for the summer, and they won’t be opening again until the fall. Prices will increase for membership in the fall.

If you’re looking for more creative writing inspiration, and useful resources for your literary life, visit ReedWriteandCreate.com.

Sign up for the monthly, Reed, Write, & Create newsletter for literary resources and opportunities delivered right to your inbox.

Don’t buy your books on Amazon, support indie booksellers and shop online at the Reed, Write, & Create bookshop for a list of curated titles by BIPOC authors.

Sharing is caring, so please share the name of this podcast with all of your BIPOC writer friends.