On The Convo Couch with Lindsay Bartels

This week Pam reports in from Lille in France with some exciting news about her upcoming release Because You're Mine! She also chats to debut memoirist Lindsay Bartels about Imogen in Waiting, which follows Lindsay and her husband as they wrestle with whether to use a stored female embryo that carries the BRCA mutation Lindsay has, after Lindsay’s breast cancer diagnosis in her 20s. Lindsay discusses her path from filmmaking and architecture to writing via blogging, and explains drafting the memoir longhand using a four-notebook, three-act structure, then transcribing, revising, cutting scenes, and deepening interiority with editors at Third Rail Press. This is a thought-provoking, uplifting conversation for both readers and writers. 00:18 Podcast Welcome And Travel Update 05:56 Host Updates And Subscriber Perks 09:03 Meet The Guest Lindsay 09:41 Lindsay’s Creative Path 15:36 Writing The Memoir Framework 17:58 Notebook One Cancer Diagnosis 19:59 Notebook Two IVF And The Embryo 21:01 Notebook Three Sydney COVID And Legal Hurdles 26:44 Letting Go And The Emotional Toll 27:53 Notebook Four Return Home And Surgery 32:27 Writing to Imogen 33:55 Transcribing and Revising 36:25 Early Readers Feedback 38:21 Querying and Developmental Edit 40:05 Third Rail Press Origin 43:36 Final Revisions and Trust 45:58 The Big Ethical Question 47:56 Family Gene Background 50:31 Keeping the Memoir Human 51:41 Holding the Finished Book 53:08 Events and Writing Community 56:51 Where to Buy and Farewell SHOW NOTES: Writes4Women www.writes4women.com Facebook @writes4women Instagram @w4wpodcast Lindsay Bartels Website: click here Instagram: click here Pamela Cook www.pamelacook.com.au Facebook: click here Twitter: click here Instagram: click here Fiction Feedback @ Writing NSW: click here This episode produced by Pamela Cook for Writes4Women on unceded Dharawal country. Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/writes4women?fan_landing=true