Life on Words

Poet and novelist Maureen McQuerry decided at age six that she would be a writer. She was in her forties before her first novels came out. In between, she was the neighborhood kid called "question box," a closet poet in high school, and a teacher who chose the classroom because writing felt too risky.Maureen talks with Terry Heath about the fear that kept her from long-form fiction and how she got past it. She describes the phone call when Abrams bought three books at once, and the family history behind Between Before and After: her father became a flu orphan at ten during the 1918–1919 epidemic and survived on the streets of New York. The novel came out in 2019, just before a new pandemic, and then lost its editors and publicist, leaving the book orphaned too. Soon after, her agent of twelve years left the industry and she moved across the state to Bainbridge Island, where she knew one person.They also discuss finding two brothers she never knew she had, one at the front door and one through a DNA match. The conversation covers the green man carving that became a poem and then a middle-grade duology, why poems and novels should open questions rather than answer them, the terror of release day, what writing costs, and the question under all her work: what does it mean to live well?Highlights00:36 Deciding at age six to become a writer01:37 Spying on the neighbors with a notebook02:11 A closet poet in high school03:14 From poems to novels, and being a role model for her kids05:16 Getting past the fear, bird by bird06:17 The phone call: Abrams buys three books07:13 Her father, a 1918 flu orphan, and Between Before and After09:19 An orphaned book: two editors, a distillery, and a fired publicist11:36 A brother at the front door, and another found through DNA13:57 Myth, fairy tales, and Celtic legend15:07 Every story starts with a question, and the green man17:38 Rift and climate refugees19:11 "Question box"19:40 Why she chose teaching20:40 The turn in a poem21:29 Hope that denies universal defeat22:45 How few answers there really are24:38 Terrified on release day25:51 The story her father wanted told26:49 Walking Brooklyn with a guide in his nineties28:01 Telling her brother who their father was29:40 Isolation and community31:57 Milestones don't change you; the work does34:19 The dark night of the soul36:01 The influenza orphan36:10 Rebuilding, and a back-porch book club37:53 What she still wants40:27 What writing costs42:22 What isn't two-sided43:25 What it means to live wellBooks by Maureen McQuerryThe Peculiars (Abrams/Amulet), ISBN 9781419712067Time Out of Time, Book One: Beyond the Door (Amulet), ISBN 9781419714931Time Out of Time, Book Two: The Telling Stone (Abrams), ISBN 9781419719165Between Before and After (Blink/HarperCollins), ISBN 9780310767282Big Ideas for Little Philosophers Box Set, with Duane Armitage (G.P. Putnam's Sons), ISBN 9780593111703Rift (forthcoming)Find Maureen: maureenmcquerry.comBOOKS: 9781419701788, 9781419710162, 9781419714948, 9780310767381

Elena Taylor spent twenty years in the theater as a playwright, director, and designer before she wrote her first novel in 2007. It took until 2016 to see a book in print, and by then she had learned the thing nobody tells you: there is no game plan. No book you can buy that lays out a novelist's career, because everybody's is different, and most of what happens is out of your hands.Elena talks about the mistake she considers the largest of her career, and what it cost her to get out of it. She talks about the difference between being autonomous and being lonely, and locates loneliness somewhere unexpected. And she talks about her father, a law professor, who heard her say she was thinking about law school and told her the world does not need more attorneys.Topics & Timestamps(00:00) Where loneliness actually comes from(01:01) Writing since she could hold a pencil(02:20) Twenty years in the theater, a first book in 2016(03:30) What she thought publication would be: a straight line up(04:04) A book released in April 2020(04:33) No game plan, and none of it in your control(05:30) What she didn't know about being published(06:11) The largest mistake of her career: no agent(07:00) A disagreement over book three(07:51) Getting the rights back, changing publishers(08:42) A second agent, and what that did for her(09:37) Awards, nominations, and Blood at number one(10:07) "I'm not sure I'm allowed in the room"(10:37) No boss's office, no performance review(12:02) Why one reader saying "I want to read your book" is a win(12:35) Tenacity over skill(14:46) Autonomous versus lonely(16:06) How loneliness changed as she got older(17:06) A time she wasn't understood: "always"(17:34) A book club, and two lines read aloud(19:31) Social commentary nobody comments on(21:17) Why forcing readers to understand turns them off(22:41) What the reader brings to the book(23:36) Gen X, benign neglect, and the Troubadour at fifteen(25:30) What stays off social media(27:28) "X class": esteem your income doesn't explain(29:38) The romance of the writing life versus the day job(30:49) The hardest conversation — as an editor, not a writer(31:22) What the writer hears versus what you said(33:15) "I can't care more than the writer"(34:17) The hardest thing to hear: flat characters(35:00) Two rejections in one day, exactly opposite(37:03) "If it really hurts, it's probably true"(38:37) Reading criticism for what's usable(39:07) Twenty-four hours to let a bad review sting(39:27) How much has been luck: "everything and nothing"(41:18) The publisher who'd just signed a similar book(42:04) Where luck was on her side: the drive itself(43:27) What the life taught her about herself(44:04) Bestselling friends in a permanent panic(45:08) The Hartwell family motto(46:11) What she still wants: an Edgar nomination(47:38) Still to prove? Every single book(49:10) Norman Maclean, and beauty outsiders never see(50:12) First draft to finished shelf(51:53) Her father: "the world needs more playwrights"(53:16) Her mother, dementia, and a shelf of her books(54:50) Anything that would make her walk away(55:50) The biggest thing on her plate right now(57:09) Why promoting a book is harder than writing one(58:12) Have the books compensated for loss?(59:11) The three legs of a lifeBOOKS: 9781448317370

Sheila Roberts wanted to be a songwriter. Sixty books later — with movies on Lifetime, Hallmark, and Great American Family — she says the writing life has cost her nothing at all.That answer is worth sitting with, because it doesn't come from an easy career. Sheila talks about crashing twice: once over a research error in a Regency romance that nobody caught until the reviewer did, and once when a box of influencer copies never went out, her editor stopped taking her calls, and her agent let her go. She calls the second one a dark night of the soul, and describes the friends who showed up with champagne and chocolate and told her the only writers who fail are the ones who quit.Along the way: the purple gaucho outfit, the Dancing with the Stars audition, a mother who hid the naughty book face-to-the-wall, and the New York Times list she has decided to stop wanting.Topics & Timestamps(01:05) Stumbling into a career, and a book sold on the first try(03:19) Paying your dues: beginning, middle, or end(04:21) The purple gauchos, and a friend who said "you look like a cliché"(05:14) Auditioning for Dancing with the Stars(06:37) The résumé — and roughly sixty books(07:09) What it cost: nothing(08:54) Crash #1: the Regency error four sets of eyes missed(10:25) Crash #2: copies that never shipped, an agent who let her go(11:21) The dark night of the soul(11:49) Champagne, chocolate, and Susan Wiggs(13:18) "No problem, no story"(14:28) Nashville, and an ambition that became an idol(15:27) Songwriting success or the marriage(16:26) The movies, and bribing a film crew with cookies(18:15) What an extrovert knows about loneliness(19:50) Why isolation starves the idea machine(20:21) Not fear exactly — not knowing who she was(21:20) Did success change how people see her?(22:09) How it changed how she sees herself(22:50) Two older brothers and no pedestal(23:31) The naughty book, and a discovery after the funeral(25:47) Once it's in print, it's there forever(26:32) The hardest conversation: being dropped(27:24) Brain baby versus product(28:20) Letting go of the New York Times list(29:34) A cat on his last life, and an agent who laughed(30:39) Muses, wiring, and ideas circulating in the air(32:06) The Man Next Door: Rear Window with two nosy women(33:20) Killing darlings, fool's gold, and the ideas still waiting(34:57) How you know it's gold (you don't)(36:04) Tennis, ping pong, and a husband who'd rather pretend(37:11) Writing every day but Sunday(38:18) Miss one boat, be ready for the next(39:16) What it gave her that outsiders never see(39:57) Genre fiction, humor, and the layer underneath(41:20) Giftings, and becoming who she's meant to be(42:36) Unexpected Journey, and the copies she still sends to strangers(43:43) Why books — "because songs didn't work"BOOKS: 9780999439807, 9780369773784, 9780312594497, 9780312370220

Kirby Larson learned that words have power at age seven, standing on a playground where the popular girls always got to be Dorothy. She told them her mother was in the hospital — leaving out that she was there having a baby — and got to be Dorothy that day. Decades and 250 rejection letters later, she'd write Hattie Big Sky, a Newbery Honor book, and a shelf of historical novels about the slices of American history most of us were never taught.Kirby talks about what a silver sticker costs you: the innocence of writing purely for love, the privacy that disappears when strangers call you by your first name. About the manuscript she rewrote entirely on a trusted reader's advice, then threw out and restored, because her writer's gut wouldn't budge. About the novel she started in 2011 and only sold this year. And about book banning, and what it's doing to the middle grade market and to writers with less privilege than she has.Topics & Timestamps(00:43) The playground, the Wizard of Oz, and a seven-year-old's discovery that stories change people(02:18) From broadcast journalism to picture books — and the library trip that flipped the switch(04:16) 250 rejection letters, and learning that revision is 95% of the job(05:33) What she imagined the life would look like, and how little she let herself dream(07:01) The bookstore event with two toddlers — and how that "disaster" launched a career(09:01) Publishing is a relationship industry(09:37) The Newbery Honor: "like winning an Oscar"(10:08) What it cost — ghostwriting, working on spec, losing the freedom of anonymity(12:27) Giving up privacy: presentations, vulnerability, and strangers who feel they know you(13:56) What loneliness taught her — the observer's advantage, and mining old cruelties for characters(16:11) A quieter Newbery, before social media — and building a circle of fellow creatives(18:29) Her own definition of success (hint: it happens at the desk)(19:25) Fan mail: Duke, Dogs for Defense, and readers convinced her invented characters were real(21:37) Turning down a respected editor because the story didn't touch her heart(23:32) Killing darlings, abandoned projects, and the novel she started in 2011(25:06) How she knows a story is right — overlooked women, forgotten history, and why there are so many dogs(26:36) C.S. Lewis on children's books, and why adults write her as often as kids do(27:39) The hardest lesson: learning to ask for help(29:05) A typical work day — and the research assistant asleep under the desk(30:20) What people get wrong: the fame, the money, the second job most writers have(31:08) The hardest conversation — rewriting Liberty in one POV, then trusting her gut and going back(34:04) Book banning inside publishing houses: editors asking writers to second-guess themselves(34:58) Where the inner voice comes from(36:10) Self-discipline, and what her son taught her about it(37:50) Violet the contemptible cow, stubbornness, and the folded love notes she leaves on her laptop(39:35) What she'd be doing instead(41:05) Why books: "I could find a friend between the covers of a book"(42:23) The price right now — the middle grade market and fear(43:24) The stories she isn't blocked from telling, and who is(44:46) What she's afraid of: the blank page, and writing the terrible(45:53) The charming literary note practice that made her closest friends(49:17) What the life gave her that outsiders never see: confidence, and a passport that stays current(50:38) What the whole arc has been about(51:30) What made it worth it — the awards kids vote on themselves(52:10) The metaphorical headstoneBOOKS: 9780385735957, 9780545416368, 9780808532101, 9780345440464

Alan Katz has written more than 50 books and spent five years writing for The Rosie O'Donnell Show. He grew up in a family of shoe-store owners and teachers and announced early that he'd be a writer — his father's response was that as a writer, you are your own merchandise. We talk about what that life has cost, the bullies who taught him to write on deadline, and why he tells kids a joke at someone else's expense is never worth it.Key topics"You are your own merchandise": the cost of a career where next year is never guaranteedComedy writing in advertising — Pepsi, McDonald's, and a musical about Sperry computers starring Kirk DouglasWriting song parodies on the 5am train for a show that aired at 10How his daughter's dinner-table question became Take Me Out of the BathtubWriting jokes for Henny Youngman at $7 apiece, in high schoolThe agent who said write only for television, and why he refusedWhat happened to the sitcomKids who say they don't read for pleasureTimestamps01:25 A family of retail and teachers, and a kid who wanted to write02:12 The costs: a best seller one year, no idea the next03:17 How the Rosie O'Donnell Show job happened04:19 Broadway, comedy, sitcoms — why their sensibilities lined up05:15 Comedy writing in advertising, and a musical about computers06:22 The Scholastic joke books07:01 Writing parodies on the 5:30am train08:03 Simone's question at dinner08:26 Simon & Schuster was across the street09:28 What he'd be doing if none of it had worked10:40 Got Your Nose, and the packages kids send him11:30 Two Sides to Everything, with his wife Rose13:12 A typical Tuesday, and Jerry the ventriloquist dummy13:50 "Turn the Tub Around," and what his kids are proudest of14:52 What people get wrong about a comedy writer's life16:00 The text chain with Dan Gutman and Peter Lerangis16:51 Whether his kids thought he was funny18:02 Keeping a notebook — writers observe19:15 Awesome Achievers, and never joking at anyone's expense20:56 A funny kid, and the bullies who demanded jokes22:04 Writing for Henny Youngman at $7 a joke22:38 How live TV taught him to write under pressure24:24 What he wouldn't tell his younger self25:26 Mildred Feinsilver, and three years chasing a sitcom in LA26:56 Is he a good boss to himself?27:53 Soupy Sales, and why jealousy isn't the word28:48 The part luck played, and the advice he gives his son30:00 The most unglamorous thing he did this week31:29 Advice for someone starting out — and stay away from AI33:31 What happened to the sitcom35:15 Lie-ographies: laughing your way into the facts38:17 Two stories about his name41:56 What's next, and 27 ways to tell a Barbie story45:07 Has it been worth it?46:29 Kids who don't read for pleasure49:14 Keep reading, keep writing, keep being kindBOOKS: 9780689829031, 9780063025042, 9780762463381, 9780762463367

Steamy romance novelist Christina Braver has never turned a profit on her books — and she's never regretted a page. In this conversation, Christina talks about writing "real sex representation" into the romance genre: heroines with endometriosis, sexual trauma, and bodies that don't work perfectly, who are still worthy of love and a happy ending. She shares the reader letter she returns to when imposter syndrome hits, the one-star review her Formula One–obsessed son wanted to answer personally, and why a woman with a clinical psychology background and a corporate career ended up writing romance during COVID. Along the way: the "generative stage" of life, the tyranny of the checklist, charlatans in the self-publishing space, and what her husband's coworkers think when they find out what his wife does for a living.The main question of this podcast: What has your life in books cost you, and what has it given you?Topics & Timestamps(00:47) The main question: cost and reward(01:01) The honest ledger — money lost, free time gone, work-life balance eroded(03:49) The generative stage: writing to leave a mark, not to climb(05:59) The reader letter she saved — Hawaii for Two and one woman's healing(09:25) Endometriosis, authenticity, and the romance genre's turn toward inclusion(11:34) Imposter syndrome, charlatans, and why she rereads those letters(15:02) What could ever make her walk away(17:24) Kennedy Ryan and discovering that romance can say something real(21:35) Medium essays, a craft book in progress: writing intimacy with intention(23:44) The famous one-star review — Formula One Noel and a son's defense(26:50) Process: the "plotzer" method — start with the sexual health issue, then find the characters(34:34) Where ideas come from: Michael Pollan, Mary Roach's Bonk, and the vet tech who explains boyfriends via animal husbandry(38:17) Writing young men — bro culture, toxic messaging, and the new adult WIP(40:41) Has writing changed her? ("My therapist says my word is why.")(42:18) What she wouldn't tell her younger self — and what she would(47:00) What everyone gets wrong about the job: Nashville dreams and the myth of making it(50:39) The most unglamorous thing she did this week (a tent was involved)(51:28) A day in the writing life: email as the frog, sprint partners, Tuesdays as flex days(55:44) Boundaries, budgets, and refusing the "you should" advice(01:00:05) On a scale of one to ten — was it worth it?Books by Christina Braver MentionedHawaii for TwoFormula One NoelYour Two Lips (first in her series)Books & Authors MentionedKennedy RyanMichael PollanMary Roach, BonkLiz Plank, For the Love of MenMichael Kimmel, GuylandStephen King ("the boys in the basement")John Gottman (5:1 ratio in relationships)Life on Words — the life behind the work. New episodes weekly at lifeonwords.com.BOOKS: 9798988547976, 9798986361451,

Ben Rockwood and his wife Tamara started Bainbridge Island Press out of frustration — she was writing better and better work and getting nothing but silence from publishers. So they decided to get on the other side of the fence and find out why. Four years later he's designing books, sitting in working groups with Penguin Random House, and helping write an international standard for royalty reporting. He also rejected the show's opening question, which results in an interesting answer.Key topicsWhy he doesn't think of any of it as a costThe dinner in Harvard Square where the press was decidedWhy most publishers won't give writers feedback — and what they do insteadThe man with thirty years of handwritten poems in boxes under his bedHybrid and vanity presses, described generously and then honestlyWhy he tells authors to publish before they think they're readyThe economics of poetry, and why so many poetry presses are nonprofitsWhether a regional name helps or hurtsTimestamps01:28 Rejecting the opening question02:28 Starting the company in rage03:24 Harvard Square, and the decision to see it from the publisher's side05:06 A reader and a writer, coming at books from opposite sides06:48 What it's given back: being in a position to actually help07:43 Why they answer every submission — and why most presses don't10:09 The man who'd never read in public before11:44 Thirty years of poems, handwritten, in boxes13:02 Walking in knowing nothing, and why that was right14:17 Learning enough to ask an intelligent question15:15 Working groups with the big houses, and what publishers won't tell each other16:38 How nuanced the industry actually is17:34 Paper mills, high-art presses, and everything between19:12 What's been disappointing21:47 Why poetry is a tough space22:34 Lots of poetry writers, not many poetry readers23:44 What he'd tell himself, and what wouldn't have stopped him25:14 Learning InDesign, and why poetry breaks every word processor26:13 The Chicago Manual of Style, and the books already on your shelf27:09 Write it down when you're a beginner, not when you're an expert29:09 Advice for poets facing rejection after rejection30:26 Hybrid and vanity presses — the pitch, and the reality32:24 The people who want a book for their grandchildren33:06 On being a gatekeeper34:37 Chapbooks as a way to say yes34:07 Thank-you letters for rejection letters35:03 Authors as bands: make the album, tour, make another36:57 Why poets keep switching presses, and why that stings37:35 Chapbook or full collection — how they decide40:34 Contest fees, and the poet's vice41:54 Where a poetry press's revenue actually comes from42:55 Why they chose for-profit over nonprofit43:23 Copper Canyon, Wave Books, and where they want to sit45:28 Quality first — and covers designed like album art47:50 Whether "Bainbridge Island" helps or limits them50:58 Prose, memoirs, and possible imprints52:50 A real Tuesday: printers, proofs, royalties, letterpress57:06 Five kids, a nightly fire, and a wall of book covers59:54 What's next, including an international royalty standard1:01:33 Is it worth it? Tech aged out. Books last.BOOKS:

Susan Wiggs sold her first book in 1986 while teaching full-time with a one-year-old at home. She's since written more than 60 novels, won three RITAs, and hit the New York Times, USA Today, and Publishers Weekly bestseller lists. We talk about what that life has cost — a decade of television, some friendships, the steadiness of a predictable paycheck — and what it's given back. Also: the insecurity that never leaves, the bicycle wreck that nearly stopped her, and why she says you have to be ready when your luck comes around.Key topicsWhat she peeled away to make room for book after bookWhy she told almost no one she was writing a novel"Writers are one of the most insecure populations I can think of"Wayward Girls, the Good Shepherd homes, and New York's look-back lawWhy she'd rather be called a writer than an authorOperation Baby Lift, and the book she's researching nowThe 2025 bicycle accident and a year of recoveryBook signings where nobody cameTimestamps02:03 A decade of TV, and the friendships that went03:30 Uncertainty, anxiety, and the stress of being a sole proprietor05:30 Creative gratification, and writing first drafts by hand06:20 A stranger in foreign sales who sold her books around the world07:34 What it cost her family — and her daughter's honest verdict09:38 Texas in the eighties, and a first husband who wasn't a patron of the arts10:15 Why she kept the novel to herself until she could point to a publisher12:14 Confidence, insecurity, and never quite dropping the backup plan14:19 Where the next book comes from — and Operation Baby Lift16:47 On the term "women's fiction," and why she says commercial novels18:18 Writer vs. author, and why the distinction matters to her19:19 What she'd be doing if the writing hadn't taken20:56 What she gave up: a predictable schedule, and health coverage22:25 A typical writing day, and the four-hour limit24:40 Admin, social media, and the other hats27:14 "You don't want to be just a life support system for an imagination"28:44 Stephen King, James Lee Burke, and why envy isn't the word29:50 The Carrot Seed, the first book she ever read alone30:53 What she'd tell her younger self — and what she wouldn't33:15 The advice she got, and where to find the straight story35:24 The imprint that closed, and the launch slot that opened37:35 When paperbacks came out like magazines40:30 A million words of apprenticeship, and avoiding writing programs42:10 Whether it's harder to start now43:28 The bicycle wreck, the airlift, and the year after46:02 Beach-read covers with unplanned pregnancies inside49:39 Her process: the pitch, the synopsis, and leaving room to be surprised52:32 What people get wrong about writers' income and hours54:29 The most unglamorous thing she did this week55:59 The signings where nobody came59:27 What's next: an eclipse in the North SeaBOOKS: 9780063118263, 9780062914118, 9780063211193, 9780060233501

A podcast about the life behind the work — conversations with writers, agents, booksellers, and other book people about one question: What has your life in books cost you, and what has it given you in return?Hosted by Terry Heath of White Rabbit Book Co. First episodes feature novelist Susan Wiggs, author Christina Braver, and Bainbridge Island Press founder Ben Rockwood — with agents, poets, booksellers, and publishers to follow.New conversations every Wednesday. Follow now so the first episodes land in your feed.lifeonwords.com