300: Sharon Wishnow - Author of The Pelican Tide

This week's guest is Sharon Wishnow (The Pelican Tide, Lake Union, June 2024). Sharon describes how she used both her networking contacts and her background as a non-fiction editor to research the Deepwater Horizon oil spill and its devastating effect on the Gulf Coast, in particular the Grand Isle area of Louisiana. We discuss the iterations her novel underwent during the acquisition phase and the seven editors Lake Union gave her to hone her story, including a Cajun proofreader and a sensitivity reader as well as her deep dive into how to write about animals, in this case a brown pelican named Gumbo. Listen to the end for Sharon's advice to newer writers about what it takes to succeed in traditional publishing. Sharon J. Wishnow is a transplanted New Englander who makes her home in Northern Virginia. In addition to writing upmarket fiction with environmental themes, Sharon writes non-fiction in the science, technology, and business categories with a passion for research, seashells, birds, and the ocean. Sharon is the former Vice President of Communications for the Women's Fiction Writers Association (WFWA), the founder of Women's Fiction Day, and is the Editorial Advisor of the WFWA magazine, WriteOn!  She has an MFA from George Mason University. She regularly speaks about research and writing and publishes a regular newsletter, Research for Writers and Other Curious People. When she's not writing or researching, you can find her in the garden, watching the birds in her backyard, or feedinghttp peanuts to her local squirrels. To learn more about Sharon, go to https://sharonwishow.com.  To learn more about how to help Grand Isle rebuild, go to https://restoregrandisle.com/#jointheeffort