Marginally | a podcast about writing, work, and friendship

Today's guest, Kateřina Tučková (who we refer to as Katka in the episode), is a Czech author, playwright, publicist, art historian, and curator of exhibitions. She has won several literary awards, including the Magnesia Litera Award and the Czech Bestseller Award. In 2017, she was awarded the Freedom, Democracy and Human Rights Award by the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes. She also has received the Premio Libro d'Europa at the Book Fair in Salerno, Italy. Her books have been translated into twenty languages. We approached Katka to talk about her book The Last Goddess because of the way that its form--composed of research documents as well as narrative--contributes to not only the dramatic structure but also the meaning of her novel. We talk in particular about the way that these authoritarian systems treated the goddesses as if they were dangerous, and "the struggle of single women against the many-headed hydra of political power." You can find Katka on Instagram and Facebook. As always, we'd love for you to take a minute to rate and review us in your podcast app, as this helps other listeners find the show. Visit our website, marginallypodcast.com, for complete show notes and to get in touch. Find us on Instagram @marginallypodcast. Theme music is "It's Time" by Scaricá Ricascá

Today's episode is a conversation we recorded with writer and essayist Meghan Nesmith back in May. We'd been emailing back and forth about the big things -- parenting, writing, work, life -- and decided we wanted to just sit down and hash things out in real time. What are we doing here? What should we be doing? What is the value of work -- emotionally, materially? We don't come up with any answers, but it felt good to connect. We hope it feels good to listen and think about it too. Meghan is a writer, editor, and obsessive living and working in Boston. She writes about motherhood, relationships, mental health, culture, and the boy band formerly known as One Direction. You can find her work online and in print in Man Repeller, The Globe and Mail, The Guardian, and more. As a content marketer, she's worked with brands like Westin-Marriott, Slack, and Knixwear. You can find out more about Meghan at meghannesmith.com. As always, we'd love for you to take a minute to rate and review us in your podcast app, as this helps other listeners find the show. Visit our website, marginallypodcast.com, for complete show notes and to get in touch. Find us on Instagram @marginallypodcast. Theme music is "It's Time" by Scaricá Ricascá

In today's episode, we talk to independent bookseller and essayist Nicole Brinkley about everything from community building with indie bookstores to vocational awe to knowing when to quit something, even when you love it. It's a short episode, but we pack a lot in! Nicole is an award-winning bookseller who manages Oblong Books in Rhinebeck, NY. She runs Misshelved, a newsletter whose essays about the book world have earned industry acclaim. Previously, she hosted a bookseller podcast and was a teen book blogger. She really likes dragons. You can find Nicole online at nebrinkley.com. As always, we'd love for you to take a minute to rate and review us in your podcast app, as this helps other listeners find the show.  Visit our website, marginallypodcast.com, for complete show notes and to get in touch. Find us on Instagram @marginallypodcast. Theme music is "It's Time" by Scaricá Ricascá 

In today's episode we talk to Jane Campbell, the author of the short story collection Cat Brushing (published in the UK by Hachette and US by Grove/Atlantic). Her first published short story, "Cat Brushing," came out in 2017 in the London Review of Books -- when she was 77. Interpretations of Love is the name of her next novel, which is scheduled for Spring 2024. We really loved talking to her in this wide-ranging interview, in which we touch on everything from portrayals of the elderly to existential angst. By the end, she's even interviewing us. We hope you enjoy it as much as we did. * As always, we'd love for you to take a minute to rate and review us in your podcast app, as this helps other listeners find the show.  Visit our website, marginallypodcast.com, for complete show notes and to get in touch. Find us on Instagram @marginallypodcast. Theme music is "It's Time" by Scaricá Ricascá 

This is a pep talk for anyone trying to let themselves take a short or long break from anything at all. We've both decided to do less or quit things for a bit over this holiday period, so we get into the different reasons why you might want to quit / take a break from / power down from something. If you know it's what you need to do but can't break up with hustle culture, get in touch and we'll write you a permission slip to take a break or a letter firing you from your project! Definitely get in touch if this resonates with you or you want to share any thoughts you have.   As always, we'd love for you to take a minute to rate and review us in your podcast app, as this helps other listeners find the show.  Visit our website, marginallypodcast.com, for complete show notes and to get in touch. Find us on Instagram @marginallypodcast. Theme music is "It's Time" by Scaricá Ricascá 

We do something a little different with this episode, and begin with a discussion of one of our friendship touchstones, the 1998 film You've Got Mail. Takes have been popping up everywhere lately, and we talk about why it matters and how it works, and what it means to us -- twenty-five years ago and now. But don't worry -- we also catch you up with some big changes in our work and writing lives. Routines, schedules, first drafting, and what's going on now [jump to minute 21 for this part of the show]. As always, we'd love for you to take a minute to rate and review us in your podcast app, as this helps other listeners find the show.  Visit our website, marginallypodcast.com, for complete show notes and to get in touch. Find us on Instagram @marginallypodcast. Theme music is "It's Time" by Scaricá Ricascá 

This week, we're sharing what we've been doing since June. It's one of those episodes where we end up forgetting we're recording a podcast and just having a conversation between friends about what our current writing routines look like, and what's going on in our work lives -- covering all the areas of our tagline of writing, work, and friendship. As always, we'd love for you to take a minute to rate and review us in your podcast app, as this helps other listeners find the show.  Visit our website, marginallypodcast.com, for complete show notes and to get in touch. Find us on Instagram @marginallypodcast. Theme music is "It's Time" by Scaricá Ricascá 

This week, we're sharing what we've been doing since June. It's one of those episodes where we end up forgetting we're recording a podcast and just having a conversation between friends about what our current writing routines look like, and what's going on in our work lives -- covering all the areas of our tagline of writing, work, and friendship. As always, we'd love for you to take a minute to rate and review us in your podcast app, as this helps other listeners find the show.  Visit our website, marginallypodcast.com, for complete show notes and to get in touch. Find us on Instagram @marginallypodcast. Theme music is "It's Time" by Scaricá Ricascá 

In today's episode we talk to Janelle Hardy, who is a writer, artist, host of the Personal Mythmaking Podcast. She is also the creator/teacher of a memoir-writing course called The Art of Personal Mythmaking. This process uses body-based trauma-informed writing prompts, fairytales and themed modules to support creative folks who are interested in healing from their life stories as they write their memoirs. Her work combines her BA in Anthropology with her MA in Dance, plus her Diploma in Structural Integration. She has been working as a trauma-informed bodyworker and as an artist for many years, and she's taught adults these important skills out of her living room, arts centers, universities and community colleges. You'll hear all of that experience and her unique wisdom in this conversation, but definitely check out her podcast and her website. We loved talking to Janelle about the work she's done, how to get out of your head and change your responses using myth and story as well as somatic or body-based healing techniques. Working in this way is rare and transformative. As always, we'd love for you to take a minute to rate and review us in your podcast app, as this helps other listeners find the show.  Visit our website, marginallypodcast.com, for complete show notes and to get in touch. Find us on Instagram @marginallypodcast. Theme music is "It's Time" by Scaricá Ricascá 

This week, we're delighted to have Emily Midorikawa back with us to discuss her new book, Out of the Shadows: Six Visionary Victorian Women in Search of a Public Voice, out now in both North America and the U.K, as well as her research process, the gift of libraries and librarians, parenthood, writing partners, and how she's worked during the pandemic. Emily is a winner of the Lucy Cavendish Fiction Prize. Her journalism has been published in, among others, the Daily Telegraph, the Paris Review, The Times (of London) andthe Washington Post. She teaches on the writing programme at New York University London. Emily is also the coauthor of A Secret Sisterhood: The Literary Friendships of Jane Austen, Charlotte Brontё, George Eliot, and Virginia Woolf, written with Emma Claire Sweeney, and published in 2017. She also collaborated with Emma on the long-running and excellent blog about female literary friendship, Something Rhymed. For more with Emily, you can listen to our previous interview with her writing partner Emma Claire Sweeney from May 2019, and of course find her online at emilymidorikawa.com, on Twitter @emilymidorikawa, and on Instagram @midorikawaemily. As always, we'd love for you to take a minute to rate and review us in your podcast app, as this helps other listeners find the show.  Visit our website, marginallypodcast.com, for complete show notes and to get in touch. Find us on Instagram @marginallypodcast. Theme music is "It's Time" by Scaricá Ricascá 

When we booked author Judith Warner on the show, we had a lot of questions for her about what writers (especially kid, YA and middle-grade fiction writers) need to know about middle-school friendship, and how that period affects the rest of our lives and our friendships. Judith's new book, And Then They Stopped Talking to Me: Making Sense of Middle School, touches on the important role that this middle-grade period has in all our lives and our friendships. Judith talks brilliantly and clearly on that topic, but we go so much wider and deeper in this interview. She talks about how she manages her perfectionism, and when it spirals into a form of OCD. It's a struggle a lot of writers deal with, and we appreciated having this open discussion. If you've struggled with any of these things we discuss, please do get in touch with us - either through our website, on our Instagram or elsewhere.   As always, we'd love for you to take a minute to rate and review us in your podcast app, as this helps other listeners find the show.  Visit our website, marginallypodcast.com, for complete show notes and to get in touch. Find us on Instagram @marginallypodcast. Theme music is "It's Time" by Scaricá Ricascá

Today, we have a short episode walking through our revision processes. As usual, this isn't prescriptive -- do things your way if they work, and you're not doing it wrong. But listen on if you are curious about what's been working for us! As always, we'd love for you to take a minute to rate and review us in your podcast app, as this helps other listeners find the show.  Visit our website, marginallypodcast.com, for complete show notes and to get in touch. Find us on Instagram @marginallypodcast. Theme music is "It's Time" by Scaricá Ricascá  https://youtu.be/QfmEIq4h0bo

Interviewing Yang Huang, a fiction writer and computer engineer, was a real delight. We had a chance to read her forthcoming novel, The Good Son, before this interview, and we loved the way her complex characters drove a surprising and satisfying story. We definitely recommend it - it's out May 27, 2021! Yang has incredible advice about everything from characters to research.  As always, we'd love for you to take a minute to rate and review us in your podcast app, as this helps other listeners find the show.  Visit our website, marginallypodcast.com, for complete show notes and to get in touch. Find us on Instagram @marginallypodcast. Theme music is "It's Time" by Scaricá Ricascá

We're here this week with a quick update, as well as an announcement of a fun new experiment! Listen for details, and join us by subscribing to our newsletter. We also chat about the things we've learned in the last few years of developing solid writing practices, as well as where we're headed. As always, we'd love for you to take a minute to rate and review us in your podcast app, as this helps other listeners find the show.  Visit our website, marginallypodcast.com, for complete show notes and to get in touch. Find us on Instagram @marginallypodcast. Theme music is "It's Time" by Scaricá Ricascá

We are so excited to talk to Elizabeth Wetmore today, the author of the novel Valentine, which we loved. We also love her story about working on a book as long as it needs, and how she's balanced many jobs while believing in her writing all along, even when she's been, in her own words, "late to the game in every possible way." So this episode features a fantastic practical discussion about making all of that work, from being led by your love for characters and place to asking for help. We also discuss the responsibility she felt in writing a diverse cast of characters in a West Texas setting, how she got the place right, and about writing about a place you deliberately left. Before devoting herself to writing, Elizabeth variously tended bar, taught English, drove a cab, edited psychology dissertations, and painted silos and cooling towers at a petrochemical plant. For a time, she lived in a one-room cabin in the woods outside of Flagstaff, Arizona while she worked as a classical music announcer. A native of West Texas, she is most at home in the desert, near the sea, or on the side of a mountain. She now lives in Chicago. She is a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and is the recipient of a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts and two fellowships from the Illinois Arts Council, and numerous other residencies and awards.  As always, we'd love for you to take a minute to rate and review us in your podcast app, as this helps other listeners find the show.  Visit our website, marginallypodcast.com, for complete show notes and to get in touch. Find us on Instagram @marginallypodcast. Theme music is "It's Time" by Scaricá Ricascá.  Have a question you'd like us to try to answer, or a topic you'd love to have us cover? Interested in being a guest? Contact us here.  Thanks for listening, and get to work! If you like Marginally, you should check out #amwriting, with Jess and KJ, where two much more experienced writers talk through their processes with each other and celebrated guests.

This week, we're checking in with each other. We talk about how we're managing pandemic life and writing, and share revision woes, moving stories, #firstnovelneverdies, and things that are getting us through each day. We'd love to hear from you; what is helping you, and what do you miss the most right now? As always, we'd love for you to take a minute to rate and review us in your podcast app, as this helps other listeners find the show.  Visit our website, marginallypodcast.com, for complete show notes and to get in touch. Find us on Instagram @marginallypodcast. Theme music is "It's Time" by Scaricá Ricascá 

In today’s episode, we talk to Tiffany Yates Martin, the author of the new book, Intuitive Editing: A Creative and Practical Guide to Revising Your Writing. This book, which we got to preview before the interview, gives a comprehensive and accessible guide for writers on how to edit their own work. Tiffany also writes fiction under her pen name Phoebe Fox, and the most recent of her five novels is A Little Bit of Grace, released in August 2020. You can find her on her website, Fox Print Editorial: https://foxprinteditorial.com/, under her own name on Medium (https://tiffanyyatesmartin.medium.com/), and under Fox Print Editorial on Twitter (@FoxPrintEd) and Facebook (@FoxPrintEditorial). As always, we'd love for you to take a minute to rate and review us in your podcast app, as this helps other listeners find the show.  Visit our website, marginallypodcast.com, for complete show notes and to get in touch. Find us on Instagram @marginallypodcast. Theme music is "It's Time" by Scaricá Ricascá.  Have a question you'd like us to try to answer, or a topic you'd love to have us cover? Interested in being a guest? Contact us here.  Thanks for listening, and get to work! If you like Marginally, you should check out #amwriting, with Jess and KJ, where two much more experienced writers talk through their processes with each other and celebrated guests.

In today’s episode, we bring you a conversation with writers and close friends, Shikha Malaviya and Soniah Kamal. Together, they talk about their how they went from strangers to close friends almost in the timespan of one phone conversation, how they help each other as writing partners, and how they embrace their intersecting identities to form communities of writers and readers.As always, we'd love for you to take a minute to rate and review us in your podcast app, as this helps other listeners find the show. Visit our website, marginallypodcast.com, for complete show notes and to get in touch.Find us on Instagram @marginallypodcast. Theme music is "It's Time" by Scaricá Ricascá 

Today we are so excited to have Nina LaCour on our show. We have been HUGE fans of Nina’s for a long time. Nina is the bestselling and Michael L. Printz Award-winning author of five critically acclaimed young adult novels published by Dutton Books. Her latest book is called Watch Over Me, a spooky atmospheric but also kind and warm book that we both devoured recently and loved. We have a wide-ranging discussion on her literary friendships and collaborations, building communities, how she balances many projects, and also her latest book.You can find her on her website at ninalacour.com, at her podcast Keeping A Notebook, her course The Slow Novel Lab, or her newsletter Letters from Nina. She's @nina_lacour on Instagram, and also on @theslownovellab for her course. Enjoy! * * * As always, we'd love for you to take a minute to rate and review us in your podcast app, as this helps other listeners find the show. Find us on Instagram @marginallypodcast. Meghan's occasionally on Twitter @meghanembee, and Olivia’s @roamingoliviaTheme music is "It's Time" by Scaricá Ricascá. Have a question you'd like us to try to answer, or a topic you'd love to have us cover? Interested in being a guest? Contact us here.  Thanks for listening, and get to work!If you like Marginally, you should check out #amwriting, with Jess and KJ, where two much more experienced writers talk through their processes with each other and celebrated guests.

This season, we’re exploring community. One of the reasons we started this podcast was we wanted to talk about writing and day jobs with other writers, and didn’t find an existing space. So when we wanted to be part of a small critique group, it made sense to start our own. The resulting collective is one of things we’re most proud of. Today’s episode is a discussion with some of last year’s collective members, about what works and what doesn’t, and we hope it gives you some tips and encouragement for starting your own. Let us know if you do!   In this episode, we talk to Amy Dressler, Erin Levens, Nicole Roth, and Stephanie Bucklin. Links to their websites are in the show notes so you can check them out. You can also find links to collective members Peter Amos and Sarah Hawkins, who weren’t able to join, but who are also doing some exciting writing things.As always, we'd love for you to take a minute to rate and review us in your podcast app, as this helps other listeners find the show.  Visit our website, marginallypodcast.com, for complete show notes and to get in touch. Find us on Instagram @marginallypodcast. Meghan's occasionally on Twitter @meghanembee, and Olivia’s @roamingolivia Theme music is "It's Time" by Scaricá Ricascá

Hi listeners We wanted to take a second to talk to you after our long silence, which has coincided with the pandemic and the amazing activism of the Black Lives Matter movement, and … so much else. We talk through a statement on our current thinking on these things, and also check in after a longer-than-normal summer break. We have a lot of changes in our lives! I guess many people do after these past few months.  We'd love to hear your thoughts on this statement, and also how you've been doing over the summer. We're on Instagram (@marginallypodcast), email podcast@marginallypodcast.com and our website marginallypodcast.com.  * * *  As always, we'd love for you to take a minute to rate and review us in your podcast app, as this helps other listeners find the show.  Find us on Instagram @marginallypodcast. Meghan's occasionally on Twitter @meghanembee, and Olivia’s @roamingolivia Theme music is "It's Time" by Scaricá Ricascá.  Have a question you'd like us to try to answer, or a topic you'd love to have us cover? Interested in being a guest? Contact us here.  Thanks for listening, and get to work! If you like Marginally, you should check out #amwriting, with Jess and KJ, where two much more experienced writers talk through their processes with each other and celebrated guests.  

  We were originally planning another episode this week, but we decided to release this interview with meditation teacher, yoga teacher and writer Divya Kohli instead. Her new book, Finding Peace in Difficult Times, has been published speedily because of how relevant it is for the current situation in which we find ourselves.   As we discuss here, activism and wellness are not mutually exclusive. Meditation can help you to see what is – help you to see and feel your own feelings, but also can bring you to see what is happening, what is unjust, in the world. It doesn’t have to be a tool of accepting whatever happens and letting it go. It can make you stronger as you commit to new action to change things. Divya also has a fascinating publishing story - she worked on various novels that didn't work until this book found her. She talks about how her book found her, and the usefulness of working with a writing coach. You can find more about her at: www.yogawithdivya.co.uk. You can also find her online at her Facebook page. *** As always, we'd love for you to take a minute to rate and review us in your podcast app, as this helps other listeners find the show.  Find us on Instagram @marginallypodcast. Meghan's occasionally on Twitter @meghanembee, and Olivia’s @roamingolivia Theme music is "It's Time" by Scaricá Ricascá.  Have a question you'd like us to try to answer, or a topic you'd love to have us cover? Interested in being a guest? Contact us here.  Thanks for listening, and get to work! If you like Marginally, you should check out #amwriting, with Jess and KJ, where two much more experienced writers talk through their processes with each other and celebrated guests.  

We're here today with Jennie Nash, book coach and founder/CEO of Author Accelerator. Jennie has spent more than 30 years in the publishing industry. With 9 books under her belt, and more than a decade coaching bestselling authors like Lisa Cron and KJ Dell'Antonia, she definitely knows what she's talking about from both sides of the desk. Jennie's latest book, Read Books All Day and Get Paid For It, about the book coaching industry, came out in January. She sat down with us this week to talk book coaching -- why you should get one, when to know you're ready, and how she works with her clients -- and we also ended up getting a little mini-coaching ourselves. We hope you love listening as much as we loved talking to Jennie! You can find Jennie online at jennienash.com or authoraccelerator.com. If you're interested in what's probably her most famous tool, the Inside Outline, head to authoraccelerator.com/marginally. As always, we'd love for you to take a minute to rate and review us in your podcast app, as this helps other listeners find the show.  Visit our website, marginallypodcast.com, for complete show notes and to get in touch. Find us on Instagram @marginallypodcast. Meghan's occasionally on Twitter @meghanembee, and Olivia’s @roamingolivia Theme music is "It's Time" by Scaricá Ricascá 

In today's episode, we talk about finishing things -- work projects, drafts, you name it -- and the different types of Big Finishing Energy. We also talk about how structure helps you drop it later, being bored on purpose, and the reading and watching we're doing right now. As always, we'd love for you to take a minute to rate and review us in your podcast app, as this helps other listeners find the show.  Visit our website, marginallypodcast.com, for complete show notes and to get in touch. Find us on Instagram @marginallypodcast. Meghan's occasionally on Twitter @meghanembee, and Olivia’s @roamingoliviaTheme music is "It's Time" by Scaricá Ricascá

In this episode, we talk to two of the three co-hosts of the #amwriting podcast. (We are huge fans of that podcast, in case you haven't noticed.) We talk with them about the benefits of having a friendship that is just about writing, about the incredible gift of being able to be open with close friends, and about the relief of finding someone to take writing seriously with. KJ Dell'Antonia wrote and edited the Motherlode blog for the New York Times from 2011 until 2016 and was a contributing editor to the Well Family section from 2016-2017. She is also the author of the author of How to Be a Happier Parent and the forthcoming novel The Chicken Sisters, which will be released June 30th 2020. (KJ was a guest on Marginally in Episode 40.) Jessica Lahey is the author of the New York Times bestselling book, The Gift of Failure: How the Best Parents Learn to Let Go So Their Children Can Succeed. Her second book, The Addiction Inoculation: Raising Healthy Kids in a Culture of Dependence, will be released in April 2021. (Jess was a guest in Episode 36 as well.) *** As always, we'd love for you to take a minute to rate and review us in your podcast app, as this helps other listeners find the show.  Find us on Instagram @marginallypodcast. Meghan's occasionally on Twitter @meghanembee, and Olivia’s @roamingolivia Theme music is "It's Time" by Scaricá Ricascá.  Have a question you'd like us to try to answer, or a topic you'd love to have us cover? Interested in being a guest? Contact us here.  Thanks for listening, and get to work! If you like Marginally, you should check out #amwriting, with Jess and KJ, where two much more experienced writers talk through their processes with each other and celebrated guests.

Today, we’re sharing a conversation with a couple of writers who are definite goals – as writers, of course, but especially as friends. Zan Romanoff and Miranda Popkey met in college, and they talk to us about how their friendship has evolved, its role in their writing, and about writing women’s friendships in fiction. They also talk process, craft, and day jobs and writing – basically everything. Zan Romanoff writes essays, journalism, and fiction, with a particular focus on and interest in areas of culture that don't always get the respect they deserve: stuff like fandom, food, and the Kardashian clan. She also writes YA, including the forthcoming novel Look, out on March 31 (make sure to preorder!), and lives in LA. Miranda is a writer, editor, social worker, and translator from the Italian. She’s lived in California, Connecticut, Texas, New York, Missouri, and Italy. Right now, she lives in Massachusetts with her husband and her dog, and her first novel, Topics of Conversation, was published by Knopf on January 7, 2020. You can find them at zanromanoff.com and mirandapopkey.com. We hope you enjoy listening as much as we enjoyed talking to them! *** As always, we'd love for you to take a minute to rate and review us in your podcast app, as this helps other listeners find the show.  Find us on Instagram @marginallypodcast. Meghan's occasionally on Twitter @meghanembee, and Olivia’s @roamingolivia Theme music is "It's Time" by Scaricá Ricascá.  Have a question you'd like us to try to answer, or a topic you'd love to have us cover? Interested in being a guest? Contact us here.  Thanks for listening, and get to work! If you like Marginally, you should check out #amwriting, with Jess and KJ, where two much more experienced writers talk through their processes with each other and celebrated guests.

Today, we revisit the fundamental question of this podcast: how does a day job and writing fit together? What have we learned in the past few years, and what have the job changes we've both experienced taught us about this balancing act? We'd love to hear your thoughts and feedback on this as well. Also, during our regular book check-in, we go deep into how to transition between two plot strands that you're trying to weave together - and the struggles both of us have with that at the moment. We also talk about whether you're an over-writer or an under-writer when describing things - and how to think about it as a form of trust in the reader. *** As always, we'd love for you to take a minute to rate and review us in your podcast app, as this helps other listeners find the show.  Find us on Instagram @marginallypodcast. Meghan's occasionally on Twitter @meghanembee, and Olivia’s @roamingolivia Theme music is "It's Time" by Scaricá Ricascá.  Have a question you'd like us to try to answer, or a topic you'd love to have us cover? Interested in being a guest? Contact us here.  Thanks for listening, and get to work! If you like Marginally, you should check out #amwriting, with Jess and KJ, where two much more experienced writers talk through their processes with each other and celebrated guests.

Today, we talk about how we've been stuck lately and what we're doing to get unstuck. Sometimes writing is hard for reasons outside your control, like being sick, and sometimes it's hard because you're not sure what to do next. We talk about what helps us, and would love to hear what works for you. As always, we'd love for you to take a minute to rate and review us in your podcast app, as this helps other listeners find the show.  Visit our website, marginallypodcast.com, for complete show notes and to get in touch. Find us on Instagram @marginallypodcast. Meghan's occasionally on Twitter @meghanembee, and Olivia’s @roamingolivia

Today's episode is a fascinating discussion of the science of friendship with author, science writer and editor Lydia Denworth. Before this interview, we read her excellent new book, Friendship: The Evolution, Biology, and Extraordinary Power of Life's Fundamental Bond. We enjoyed talking about some of our favorite parts, but we recommend checking out the whole book to learn more about this topic, which is just starting to get significant scientific attention. Lydia Denworth started her career in news magazines and freelancing for women’s magazines, but has more recently gravitated to writing primarily about science. She’s visited brain imaging labs and baboon troops in Kenya, and written about everything from Alzheimer’s to zebrafish. She is now the author of three books of popular science. Today we’re talking about her third book, which is Friendship: The Evolution, Biology, and Extraordinary Power of Life’s Fundamental Bond – an excellent book about the health and scientific data about quality relationships. This book was supported by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. She is a contributing editor for Scientific American and she writes the Brain Waves blog for Psychology Today. Her work has also appeared in The Atlantic, Newsweek, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Time, Spectrum and many other publications. We loved talking to her about her new and fascinating book, which is out this week – January 28, 2020. We strongly recommend you check it out.   As always, we'd love for you to take a minute to rate and review us in your podcast app, as this helps other listeners find the show.  Find us on Instagram @marginallypodcast. Meghan's occasionally on Twitter @meghanembee, and Olivia’s @roamingolivia Theme music is "It's Time" by Scaricá Ricascá.  Have a question you'd like us to try to answer, or a topic you'd love to have us cover? Interested in being a guest? Contact us here.  Thanks for listening, and get to work! If you like Marginally, you should check out #amwriting, with Jess and KJ, where two much more experienced writers talk through their processes with each other and celebrated guests.  

Today's episode is less of a wild-eyed goal-setting session and more a conversation about our perspectives for this year. We share one thing we're bringing with us from 2019 (everything else can burn), one thing we're excited about for 2020, and our guiding themes and words for this year. We'd love to hear what you'd share, too! As always, we'd love for you to take a minute to rate and review us in your podcast app, as this helps other listeners find the show.  Visit our website, marginallypodcast.com, for complete show notes and to get in touch. Find us on Instagram @marginallypodcast. Meghan's occasionally on Twitter @meghanembee, and Olivia’s @roamingolivia Theme music is "It's Time" by Scaricá Ricascá

This episode is the second of what we're calling Marginally Podcast situation guides, a type of episode designed to share some tips from what we’ve learned as day-job-writers. In this episode, Meghan shares some of what she's learned about writing while you're in school, whether it's grad school, undergrad, or on the other side of the desk, as a teacher. As always, we'd love for you to take a minute to rate and review us in your podcast app, as this helps other listeners find the show.  Find us on Instagram @marginallypodcast. Meghan's occasionally on Twitter @meghanembee, and Olivia’s @roamingolivia  Theme music is "It's Time" by Scaricá Ricascá.  Have a question you'd like us to try to answer, or a topic you'd love to have us cover? Interested in being a guest? Contact us here.  Thanks for listening, and get to work! If you like Marginally, you should check out #amwriting, with Jess and KJ, where two much more experienced writers talk through their processes with each other and celebrated guests.

This episode is the first of what we're calling Marginally Podcast situation guides, a new type of episode designed to share some tips from what we’ve learned as day-job-writers. In this episode, Olivia shares some of what she's learned about writing while you're traveling - especially focusing on work travel. We'd love to hear your thoughts on this new format and the tips - and send us your own tips for writing while you travel. Or send us a request for another guide. We'll be publishing them occasionally. * * * As always, we'd love for you to take a minute to rate and review us in your podcast app, as this helps other listeners find the show.  Find us on Instagram @marginallypodcast. Meghan's occasionally on Twitter @meghanembee, and Olivia’s @roamingolivia Theme music is "It's Time" by Scaricá Ricascá.  Have a question you'd like us to try to answer, or a topic you'd love to have us cover? Interested in being a guest? Contact us here.  Thanks for listening, and get to work! If you like Marginally, you should check out #amwriting, with Jess and KJ, where two much more experienced writers talk through their processes with each other and celebrated guests.

In this episode, we touch base on our challenge to submit something every other month. We also chat about our recent month or so of writing, including coming to terms with challenging schedules (hello, November, nice to see you again) and how to move ahead. Also: what to do when you're almost ready for other people to read your draft and it's scary! Finally, we'll putting out a guide to writing while you travel in our last episode this year. We're looking to put together a few more guides, so if you have anything you'd like a guide on, let us know!   As always, we'd love for you to take a minute to rate and review us in your podcast app, as this helps other listeners find the show.  Find us on Instagram @marginallypodcast. Meghan's occasionally on Twitter @meghanembee, and Olivia’s @roamingolivia. Theme music is "It's Time" by Scaricá Ricascá.  Have a question you'd like us to try to answer, or a topic you'd love to have us cover? Interested in being a guest? Contact us here. Thanks for listening, and get to work! If you like Marginally, you should check out #amwriting, with Jess and KJ, where two much more experienced writers talk through their processes with each other and celebrated guests.

Today's episode was one of the most fun conversations to record (we say that every time, but seriously, y'all, we mean it). Kate Newburg and Tasha L. Harrison are writing and podcasting BFFs. They like to say that they are a lot, and we think that's perfect. In this episode, they have so much energy and so many projects, and we loved chatting with them about writing friendship and collaboration. We've had Tasha on before, way back in episode 59, and are happy to have her back with Kate. Kate and Tasha are in the middle of season 2 of their fantastic Lady Books podcast. Kate describes their approach as a concept album, where each season is self-contained and totally different, and definitely worth adding to your listening line-up. *** As always, we'd love for you to take a minute to rate and review us in your podcast app, as this helps other listeners find the show.   Find us on Instagram @marginallypodcast. Meghan's occasionally on Twitter @meghanembee, and Olivia’s @roamingolivia Theme music is "It's Time" by Scaricá Ricascá.  Have a question you'd like us to try to answer, or a topic you'd love to have us cover? Interested in being a guest? Contact us here. Thanks for listening, and get to work! If you like Marginally, you should check out #amwriting, with Jess and KJ, where two much more experienced writers talk through their processes with each other and celebrated guests.

Pep Talk 17 is from Episode 61 with Jessica Abel. We totally endorse her nap-on-the-spot plan but especially like her approach to using self-care techniques as part of the writing process. If you like this, go back and check out the full episodes as well! *** As always, we'd love for you to take a minute to rate and review us in your podcast app, as this helps other listeners find the show.  Find us on Instagram @marginallypodcast. Meghan's occasionally on Twitter @meghanembee, and Olivia’s @roamingolivia.  Theme music is "It's Time" by Scaricá Ricascá.  Have a question you'd like us to try to answer, or a topic you'd love to have us cover? Interested in being a guest? Contact us here. Thanks for listening, and get to work! If you like Marginally, you should check out #amwriting, with Jess and KJ, where two much more experienced writers talk through their processes with each other and celebrated guests.

Pep Talk 16 is from Episode 51 with Paul Jarvis, when he talked to us about what to do with fear - what you can use and what you have to push past. If you like this, go back and check out the full episodes as well! *** As always, we'd love for you to take a minute to rate and review us in your podcast app, as this helps other listeners find the show.  Find us on Instagram @marginallypodcast. Meghan's occasionally on Twitter @meghanembee, and Olivia’s @roamingolivia.  Theme music is "It's Time" by Scaricá Ricascá.  Have a question you'd like us to try to answer, or a topic you'd love to have us cover? Interested in being a guest? Contact us here. Thanks for listening, and get to work! If you like Marginally, you should check out #amwriting, with Jess and KJ, where two much more experienced writers talk through their processes with each other and celebrated guests.

Before we even get started, let's just say up front: if you're doing National Novel Writing Month (aka NaNoWriMo), we are totally rooting for you! But NaNo isn't for us, and this is something we've been coming to terms with over the past couple of years - if you don't believe us, check out our previous episodes on this topic. For us, focusing just on one month, when we (as writers with day jobs and other responsibilities) have so much going on, isn't very sustainable and can make us really anxious/stressed/feel bad. So this episode is about saying "no" in a gracious way - including how to set goals for your project that are longer-term, and also dealing with your feelings when so many other people are talking about NaNo.  As always, we'd love for you to take a minute to rate and review us in your podcast app, as this helps other listeners find the show.    Find us on Instagram @marginallypodcast. Meghan's occasionally on Twitter @meghanembee, and Olivia’s @roamingolivia   Theme music is "It's Time" by Scaricá Ricascá.    Have a question you'd like us to try to answer, or a topic you'd love to have us cover? Interested in being a guest? Contact us here. Thanks for listening, and get to work!   If you like Marginally, you should check out #amwriting, with Jess and KJ, where two much more experienced writers talk through their processes with each other and celebrated guests.

Today we’re bringing you an interview with writer and editor Julie Buntin, the author of a great friendship novel, Marlena, which was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle’s John Leonard Prize, longlisted for The Center for Fiction’s First Novel Prize, and named a best book of the year by over a dozen outlets, including the Washington Post, NPR, and Kirkus Reviews. Y’all, it’s really good. Julie is from northern Michigan, and her writing has appeared in the Atlantic, Vogue, the New York Times Book Review, Guernica, and other publications. She has taught creative writing at New York University, Columbia University, and the Yale Writers’ Workshop, and is incoming asst prof in the Helen Zell Writers' Program at the University of Michigan, and a recent Ellen Levine Fund for Writers Award winner for her current novel-in-progress, and is editor-at-large for Catapult. You can find her at juliebuntin.com and on Twitter @juliebuntin. We cover a lot of ground, serious and not-so-serious. From the impact of friendships and loss, to Golden Girls, Judy Blume, and Nicholas Cage, to the algorithm and how to run a writing workshop. We loved talking to Julie, and hope you enjoy listening. As always, we'd love for you to take a minute to rate and review us in your podcast app, as this helps other listeners find the show.  Visit our website, marginallypodcast.com, for complete show notes and to get in touch. Find us on Instagram @marginallypodcast. Meghan's occasionally on Twitter @meghanembee, and Olivia’s @roamingolivia Theme music is "It's Time" by Scaricá Ricascá 

We go way back in this episode, to the beginning of our friendship - those fraught 6 weeks at the beginning of college where you may or may not make incorrect judgments about who you do or don't like. We talk about how our friendship has gotten closer over time, and what has bonded us, even when we don't physically see each other that much. And then we rely on Meghan's deep knowledge of friendship books, and the project she's doing to think about them as a genre: what counts as a friendship book (or story), and why are we so drawn to them? It's basically a very excellent book club. Send us your favorite friendship books/TV shows/movies, and we'd also love to hear about your favorite literary friendships, if you're into that. *** Full show notes are on our website, marginallypodcast.com. As always, we'd love for you to take a minute to rate and review us in your podcast app, as this helps other listeners find the show.  Find us on Instagram @marginallypodcast. Meghan's occasionally on Twitter @meghanembee, and Olivia’s @roamingolivia Theme music is "It's Time" by Scaricá Ricascá.  Have a question you'd like us to try to answer, or a topic you'd love to have us cover? Interested in being a guest? Contact us here. Thanks for listening, and get to work! *** If you like Marginally, you should check out #amwriting, with Jess and KJ, where two much more experienced writers talk through their processes with each other and celebrated guests.

In today’s episode, we bring back one of our very first guests, Alicia de los Reyes! Alicia is a writer based in Maine, where she lives with her family and cat. She has her MFA from University of New Hampshire. Her nonfiction has appeared in The Archipelago, The Billfold, and others, and her fiction has been published in Best New Writing 2015.  She’s also the author of the writing guides DIY Writing Retreat and DIY Chick Lit, and the creator of the Writer’s Process Planner, and we have her on today to talk about goal setting and planning — take it from me, even if you’re allergic to Virgo season and planning and goals, you’ll want to listen to this one. You can find out more about Alicia at aliciadelosreyes.com, and as @likesoatmeal on Instagram and Twitter. Listen to her podcast Scratch Paper on iTunes or on Stitcher, or at her website. As always, we'd love for you to take a minute to rate and review us in your podcast app, as this helps other listeners find the show.  Visit our website, marginallypodcast.com, for complete show notes and to get in touch. Find us on Instagram @marginallypodcast. Meghan's occasionally on Twitter @meghanembee, and Olivia’s @roamingolivia

We came back from the summer with a lot of news, which we're excited to share. First, we talk about what we did over the summer - the ups and downs of our writing. Then we talk about our goals for the year. Olivia and Meghan both have goals related to their book projects, and also we are planning to submit something for publication every two months (alternating months). We will share our experience and lessons from that as we go along this season. And finally, one of our goals for the year is to have more collaboration and community, so ... we are starting a writing collective! You can let us know that you're interested in participating in it by answering the questions we posted on our blog, here.As always, we'd love for you to take a minute to rate and review us in your podcast app, as this helps other listeners find the show.  Visit our website, marginallypodcast.com, for complete show notes and to get in touch. Find us on Instagram @marginallypodcast. Meghan's occasionally on Twitter @meghanembee, and Olivia’s @roamingolivia

Today, we're bringing you a special episode: a collaboration with Courtney Balestier of the WMFA podcast. If you don't already listen to WMFA, this episode is sure to make you a convert. WMFA features interviews with outstanding writers, from Emily St. John Mandel (one of my favorite episodes) to Susan Choi, as well as minisodes where Courtney puts into words the same anxieties and thoughts we have, in a way that makes us feel so seen.Courtney Balestier is a writer whose work focuses on the intersection of place and identity, particularly in her native Appalachia. Her writing has appeared in a variety of publications, including The New Yorker online, Lucky Peach, the New York Times, and Oxford American, and has been nominated for a James Beard Foundation Journalism Award and a Pushcart Prize. Courtney holds a bachelor's degree in news journalism from West Virginia University and a master's degree in magazine journalism from New York University. A native West Virginian, she is at work on a novel about identity, progress, and class set in Appalachia and Detroit. She lives and works in Pittsburgh. You can find Courtney on her website, Twitter, and Instagram. Find WMFA online here, or listen in your favorite podcast app.As always, we'd love for you to take a minute to rate and review us in your podcast app, as this helps other listeners find the show.  Visit our website, marginallypodcast.com, for complete show notes and to get in touch. Find us on Instagram @marginallypodcast. Meghan's occasionally on Twitter @meghanembee, and Olivia’s @roamingoliviaTheme music is "It's Time" by Scaricá Ricascá 

We're thrilled to share this conversation with essayist Mary Laura Philpott, author of the most excellent collection I Miss You When I Blink. Mary Laura is also the Emmy-award winning co-host of A Word on Words, a literary interview show on Nashville Public Television; the author and illustrator of the book Penguins with People Problems; and "book enthusiast at large" for Parnassus Books — as well as an all-around delightful human. We talk about feelings, the art of the personal essay, the transition between projects, how to work when you don’t know the outcome, quitting, and of course get some great book recommendations. Find Mary Laura online here, and on Twitter, Instagram,and Facebook. As always, we'd love for you to take a minute to rate and review us in your podcast app, as this helps other listeners find the show.  Find us on Instagram @marginallypodcast. Meghan's occasionally on Twitter @meghanembee. Theme music is "It's Time" by Scaricá Ricascá. Have a question you'd like us to try to answer, or a topic you'd love to have us cover? Interested in being a guest? Contact us here. Thanks for listening, and get to work! * * * If you like Marginally, you should check out #amwriting, with Jess and KJ, where two much more experienced writers talk through their processes with each other and celebrated guests.

This week's episode is short and (bitter)sweet. We are going to be taking a summer break, so we set some intentions for the season. Also, we recorded it in real life, in a park, so you get to hear a lot of birds! Also - please send us your suggestions for how you might want to have a collaborative/community writing group next year! * As always, we'd love for you to take a minute to rate and review us in your podcast app, as this helps other listeners find the show.  Find us on Instagram @marginallypodcast. Meghan's occasionally on Twitter @meghanembee, and Olivia’s @roamingolivia Theme music is "It's Time" by Scaricá Ricascá.  Have a question you'd like us to try to answer, or a topic you'd love to have us cover? Interested in being a guest? Contact us here. Thanks for listening, and get to work! * If you like Marginally, you should check out #amwriting, with Jess and KJ, where two much more experienced writers talk through their processes with each other and celebrated guests.

This week's episode is a catch up episode, where we talk about finding (or ditching) your process, the joy of a first draft, the pain of a first draft, and getting unstuck. It's part craft nerdiness and part public therapy. As always, we'd love for you to take a minute to rate and review us in your podcast app, as this helps other listeners find the show.   Visit our website, marginallypodcast.com, for complete show notes and to get in touch.  Find us on Instagram @marginallypodcast. Meghan's occasionally on Twitter @meghanembee, and Olivia’s @roamingolivia Theme music is "It's Time" by Scaricá Ricascá 

In this week's episode, we have the special privilege of having one but two guests - writers and friends Emily Midorikawa and Emma Claire Sweeney. Emily and Emma are the co-authors of A Secret Sisterhood: The literary friendships of Jane Austen, Charlotte Bronte, George Eliot and Virginia Woolf. They also co-run the fantastic blog about female literary friendship and collaboration, SomethingRhymed.com. Emma is the author of the award-winning novel Owl Song at Dawn, and Emily is a winner of the Lucy Cavendish Fiction Prize, and they both teach at New York University London. We loved talking to them about how to tackle a big project and stay friends, as well as how literary women have always managed ambition and jealousy in their friendships - and how Emma and Emily have dealt with these things. We loved talking to these honest, smart and literary women.   You can find Emily at her website, Instagram or Twitter. You can contact Emma from her website or on Twitter. As always, we'd love for you to take a minute to rate and review using your podcast app, as this helps other listeners find the show. Visit our website, marginallypodcast.com, for complete show notes and to get in touch. Find us on Instagram @marginallypodcast. Meghan's on Twitter @meghanembee, and Olivia’s @roamingolivia. Theme music is "It's Time" by Scaricá Ricascá.  

Podcast-friend, writer and writing coach Caroline Donahue is back on our podcast this week to talk about her new book, The Story Arcana: Tarot for Writers. We loved catching up with her after about a year - a year that's brought her big changes in her life, a move to Berlin and all the stress that entails. We also talked about why tarot is not scary, and specifically how tarot can help you get beyond everything you've been taught, to get in touch with your intuition. (See? Totally not scary.) You can find Caroline at carolinedonahue.com, and on Twitter and Instagram @carodonahue. As always, we'd love for you to take a minute to rate and review us in your podcast app, as this helps other listeners find the show.  Visit our website, marginallypodcast.com, for complete show notes and to get in touch. Find us on Instagram @marginallypodcast. Meghan's on Twitter @meghanembee, and Olivia’s @roamingolivia

We've both done writing retreats recently, so this is a whole episode on retreats: what works, what doesn't work, when they're useful, and how to pick one. We talk about both organized retreats and DIY retreats.As always, we'd love for you to take a minute to rate and review us in your podcast app, as this helps other listeners find the show.  Visit our website, marginallypodcast.com, for complete show notes and to get in touch. Find us on Instagram @marginallypodcast or Facebook. Meghan's on Twitter @meghanembee, and Olivia’s @roamingoliviaTheme music is "It's Time" by Scaricá Ricascá

Today we talk about morning routines: a little bit about our own, but mostly about how much BS people say when in articles about theirs. (Spoiler alert: you still deserve to be a writer, even if you're not a morning person!) This brings us on to how to take care of yourself (hint: not just bubble baths), and what that can give you in terms of motivation. And then we talk a bit about the tools we've been using for research and writing, since we are both working on new projects. (Another spoiler: Meghan gives a short masterclass in using notecards.) Also we discussed how funny it is when people try to convince you that your book isn't bad (when they haven't read it), and why we love citing other people's ideas.   As always, we'd love for you to take a minute to rate and review using your podcast app, as this helps other listeners find the show. Find us on Instagram @marginallypodcast. Meghan's on Twitter @meghanembee, and Olivia’s @roamingolivia. Theme music is "It's Time" by Scaricá Ricascá. Have a question you'd like us to try to answer, or a topic you'd love to have us cover? Interested in being a guest? Contact us here. Thanks for listening, and get to work!

In today's episode, we get some great lessons in creative focus from cartoonist, author and educator Jessica Abel. We have loved all the inspirational but practical work she has done on being a creative when you have a busy life - from her workbook Growing Gills to her practical advice on creative focus. She gave us some great advice on saying goodbye to projects we have finished, how to pick a project when you have a million ideas, and how to manage your energy in your creative and day job lives. You can find her at jessicaabel.com, or on Twitter and Instagram @visiblewoman.   As always, we'd love for you to take a minute to rate and review us in your podcast app, as this helps other listeners find the show.   Find us on Instagram @marginallypodcast or Facebook. Meghan's on Twitter @meghanembee, and Olivia’s @roamingolivia   Theme music is "It's Time" by Scaricá Ricascá.    Have a question you'd like us to try to answer, or a topic you'd love to have us cover? Interested in being a guest? Contact us here. Thanks for listening, and get to work!  

This is one of our candid catch-up episodes, where you can hear what's going on with us and our writing. This week is maybe more candid than most: we explain why we have moved to an every-two-weeks format (the podcast editing is a tough slog alongside everything else). We also feel we've wrapped up the should-you-quit-your-day-job side of Season 2, and we will mostly be back to our core content (and what we like best): talking to each other and writers about anything about balancing jobs and writing. Then we talk about the real stuff going on in our life - Meghan finding a new writing schedule that's less often, due to changing daytime responsibility, and Olivia still in the thinking and processing phase before figuring out what to write next. As always, we'd love for you to take a minute to rate and review us in your podcast app, as this helps other listeners find the show.  Visit our website, marginallypodcast.com, for complete show notes and to get in touch. Find us on Instagram @marginallypodcast or Facebook. Meghan's on Twitter @meghanembee, and Olivia’s @roamingolivia Theme music is "It's Time" by Scaricá Ricascá