EP 225 - Writing Personal Experience in Fiction with Ami Sands Brodoff

12/17/21 • 58 min

1 Listener

Stark Reflections on Writing and Publishing

Mark interviews Ami Sands Brodoff, the award-winning author of three novels and two story collections about her latest book, The Sleep of Apples and the stories and books she has written over the years.

Prior to the main content, Mark discusses recent comments, welcomes new patron Jared Nelson, shares a personal update, and a word about this episode's sponsor.

You can learn more about how you can get your work distributed to retailers and library systems around the world at starkreflections.ca/Findaway.

In their conversation Mark and Ami talk about:

Ami as a "late-bloomer" writer who had worked on a number of short stories for years before working on a novel
The encouragement, including a nomination for The Pushcart Prize that happened early on with Ami's first published story
Being invited to The Algonquin Hotel in New York for lunch with some editors
Asking herself is this the career I want to be doing no matter what
The related anchor job that Ami had for guaranteed writing money coming in while she did freelance work
Adapting real-life circumstances into her first novel, Can You See Me?
How the stories in The Sleep of Apples are linked by a neighborhood, whereas in a previous collection, it was a theme that unified the stories
The concept of neighborhoods in cities like Montreal and New York
The amazing critical acclaim for The Sleep of Apples and how publicist can snowball
Various workshops that Ami has lead over the years
Tapping into the stories that other people want to share and tell
Advice Ami would have for beginning writers
And more...

After the interview Mark reflects on the idea of how publicist can snowball, or how a lot of hard work can lead to those "viral" things.

Links of Interest:

Ami Sands Brodoff is the award-winning author of three novels and two story collections. Her latest novel-in-stories, The Sleep of Apples, centres on 9 closely-linked characters confronting crises related to mental illness, mortality--sooner rather than later--and gender identity.

Ami's novel, In Many Waters, grapples with our world-wide refugee crisis. The White Space Between, which focuses on a mother and daughter struggling with the impact of the Holocaust won The Canadian Jewish Book Award for Fiction. Bloodknots, a volume of thematically-linked stories was a finalist for the ReLit Award.

Ami leads workshops for teens, adults, and seniors. She has taught writing to formerly incarcerated women and to people grappling with mental illness. Ami has been awarded fellowships to Yaddo, the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, The Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, Ragdale Foundation, and St. James Cavalier Arts Centre for Creativity (Malta).

Ami lives in ...

Prior to the main content, Mark discusses recent comments, welcomes new patron Jared Nelson, shares a personal update, and a word about this episode's sponsor.

You can learn more about how you can get your work distributed to retailers and library systems around the world at starkreflections.ca/Findaway.

In their conversation Mark and Ami talk about:

Ami as a "late-bloomer" writer who had worked on a number of short stories for years before working on a novel
The encouragement, including a nomination for The Pushcart Prize that happened early on with Ami's first published story
Being invited to The Algonquin Hotel in New York for lunch with some editors
Asking herself is this the career I want to be doing no matter what
The related anchor job that Ami had for guaranteed writing money coming in while she did freelance work
Adapting real-life circumstances into her first novel, Can You See Me?
How the stories in The Sleep of Apples are linked by a neighborhood, whereas in a previous collection, it was a theme that unified the stories
The concept of neighborhoods in cities like Montreal and New York
The amazing critical acclaim for The Sleep of Apples and how publicist can snowball
Various workshops that Ami has lead over the years
Tapping into the stories that other people want to share and tell
Advice Ami would have for beginning writers
And more...

After the interview Mark reflects on the idea of how publicist can snowball, or how a lot of hard work can lead to those "viral" things.

Links of Interest:

Ami lives in ...

Previous Episode

EP 224 - Being an Independent Publisher and Bookseller with Heather Campbell

Mark interviews Heather Campbell co-founder and publisher at Latitude 46 Publishing, and owner of a brand-new indie bookstore in Sudbury, Ontario.

Prior to the main content, Mark shares some recent comments, a personal update, and shares a word about this episode's sponsor.

You can learn more about how you can get your work distributed to retailers and library systems around the world at starkreflections.ca/Findaway.

In their conversation Mark and Heather talk about:

Heather's long love of reading and books, and her engagement in the Sudbury, Ontario writing community
Deciding to start Latitude 46 when Scrivener Press decided to close shop
How Heather got into learning about publishing, distribution, and self-publishing twelve years ago by helping a friend out with her book
Celebrating Latitude 46's 7th anniversary on March 22, 2022
How often a regional/local publisher has to start off doing it part time and with funding support from arts councils, etc
The average number of submissions rec'd versus books published
The way that Heather, as a publisher, seeks to have a collaborative relationship with her writers
Advice for authors looking to submit to Latitude 46
The mandate to publish authors either from or with strong ties to Northern Ontario and mid-Northern Ontario
Heather's decision to open up a downtown independently operated bookstore as part of a 4 month opportunity by the city called "Zero Vacancy" to help revitalize the downtown core
Some of the other artisan and local artist merchandise carried in the store
An imprint from Latitude 46 that Heather uses when the title doesn't have a literary bend to it
Authors who have come in to sign books and the store as well as forthcoming planned author visits
Heather's thought that writers could benefit from going and working in a bookstore, even briefly, to understand what that experience is like
The question of "is this publishable" that publishers often ask when a manuscript is presented
Toni Morrison's long term "teamwork" based relationship with her editor

After the interview Mark reflects on the importance of understanding a publishers vision and mandate as well as the idea of how writers can benefit from in person bookstore experience.

Links of Interest:

Next Episode

EP 226 - Reflective Round Table December 2021

The first in a new series of "Reflective Round Table" discussions between Mark and a selection of patrons of the podcast.

This episode is sponsored by the patrons of the Stark Reflections podcast who support this podcast at:

https://patreon.com/starkreflections

In this episode, Mark chats with:

Matty Dalrymple
Shari Decter Hirst (writing as Sherilyn Decter)
Jeff Elkins
Kathy Mac

In their conversation Mark, Matt, Shari, Jeff, and Kathy talk about

The importance of a strong narrative question/theme for a book and/or series
Different planning processes as we hurtle toward 2022
Timelines/stressors/deadlines where editorial input is shortchanged
And a few other things in between

Links of Interest:

The introductory, end, and bumper music for this podcast (“Laser Groove”) was composed and produced by Kevin MacLeod of www.incompetech.com and is Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0