Interview with write Doug Carnine

Writer Doug Carnine joins me on this holiday to chat about his spiritual, self-improvement book, How Love Wins: The Power of Mindful Kindness.

Bio:

During his 35-year career at the University of Oregon, Douglas Carnine, Professor Emeritus, taught about, conducted research on, and advocated for improved education for vulnerable children—the poor, handicapped, English language learners, and children of color. He has over 100 scholarly publications, has lectured around the world, received the Ersted Award for outstanding University teaching, and received the Life Time Achievement Award from the Council for Exceptional Children. He received a presidential appointment to the National Institute for Literacy and was confirmed by the U.S. Senate, serving as program committee chair for three years. Simultaneously he developed his meditation and kindness practice and became a Buddhist lay minister. Since retirement, he has developed a mindful kindness project that includes a prison ministry, two books—Saint Badass: Transcendence in Tucker Max Hell and How Love Wins: The Power of Mindful Kindness and a related website.

Welcome, Doug. Please tell us about your current release.

“Be kind. It sounds simple, so why is it so difficult? Most of us recognize that being kinder and more present would not only improve our own lives and the lives of our loved ones, but also strengthen our communities and even our world. In fact, numerous scientific studies have confirmed that both living mindfully and being kind to others offer a host of benefits — from stronger relationships to longer life. Yet even if we truly care and are motivated to change, we find that old habits keep us coming back to the same self-centered cycle.

With his book How Love Wins, Buddhist and educator Doug Carnine offers another path. In this simple but powerful guide, Carnine leads the reader through a 12-step process of transformation, opening a toolbox of skills and techniques that anyone can use to live more fully in the moment and be more kind to themselves and others. A lay Buddhist minister who has worked with hospice patients and prisoners, Carnine reassures us that everyone is capable of building a mindfully kind life — and making it stick.”

What inspired you to write this book?

Personal experiences of profound kindness, scientific findings about the power of kindness, and the central role of kindness in all the world’s religions. These points are elaborated in the “CADRE speech.”

Excerpt from How Love Wins: The Power of Mindful Kindness:

INTRODUCTION

The Case for Mindful Kindness

You may have read a lot about mindfulness in the media recently— for example, according to a recent article in the New York Times, mindfulness has become a “mainstream business practice and a kind of industry in its own right.” However, when is the last time you really thought about what it means to be kind? In fact, while mindfulness is a hot topic with many different meanings in the fields of spirituality, personal development, and business, you may not have had a conversation about kindness since elementary school. And yet there are good reasons why you should. Plenty of research shows that when we practice kindness, the people who bene t the most are ourselves. Acting with generosity, altruism, compassion, cooperation, forgiveness, empathy, and gratitude consistently results in better relationships, a more satisfying career, and a longer, happier, and healthier life.

That’s not to dismiss the value of mindfulness. On the contrary, this ancient practice has become popular for good reason. Mindfulness comes with its own slate of proven benefits both for our physical health (through less stress and lower blood pressure) and for mental health (including less worry about the future and fewer regrets about the past, less preoccupation about success and self-esteem, and more deep connections with others).

I like to use the word kindful to describe how we can combine being kind with being mindful. If mindfulness is how we can “be” in the world; kindness is what we can “do” in the world. Being kindful frees people from the o en-unpleasant need for distractions that can lead to addictions and violence. Spending less time with distractions gives us more time to be kind to others and to reap the benefits of that kindness. This book describes the value—to us and to society—of fusing kindness and mindfulness in all aspects of our lives. I want to show you why you should make kindness one of your life goals and explain why and how mindful- ness can help you be more kind to yourself and others. Most important is the hands-on advice for adopting habits of kindfulness and meditation that will change your life and the lives of those around you.

What exciting story are you working on next?

“My life was the result of my crazy childhood.” With these words began an extraordinary correspondence, between Roy Tester, a double-murderer serving a life sentence in the notorious Arkansas prison Tucker Max, and Doug Carnine, a professor emeritus at the University if Oregon and lay Buddhist minister on the other side of the country. In the letters that followed — more than 600 over seven years — these two men, along with three other prisoners at Tucker, developed a profound spiritual partnership that changed all of their lives. Saint Badass: Transcendence in Tucker Max Hell tells the inspiring story of these unlikely friends in their own words, and follows their journey as they rediscover their humanity in one of the most inhuman places on Earth. You can follow their journey after the book ends by going to http://feedkindness.com/blog/.

When did you first consider yourself a writer?

I started academic non-fiction writing when I was a 21-year-old junior at the University of Illinois National Science Foundation fellowship program to accelerate the training of experimental psychologists. By the time I was 27 I was middling academic writer, not becoming proficient until in my 30s. I have not yet become proficient in writing trade books such as How Love Wins; the clarity of the writing is strongly influenced by the developmental editor Ilima Loomis.

Do you write full-time? If so, what's your work day like? If not, what do you do other than write and how do you find time to write?

I write two to three hours a day: revising this book, preparing course proposals using my two books, writing my blog, responding to emails about my books, and responding to letters that come out of my prison ministry.

What would you say is your interesting writing quirk?

I am obsessed with getting feedback on everything I write and making revisions based on that feedback. I rewrote this book probably 20 times over a ten-year period.

As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?

In 7^th grade, I told my parents I wanted to be a psychology professor.

Anything additional you want to share with the readers?

When I first started writing this I thought that the purpose of kindness was to help others. I now realize we need to practice kindness so that our own lives will have meaning and lead to times of contentment.

Links:

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Amazon

Thanks for joining me today, Doug.

Interview with songwriter-now-debut-novelist Tommy Scherer

Songwriter and debut science fiction author Tommy Scherer is here today to talk about his novel Soul Wars.

Bio:

Tommy’s book, Soul Wars, was inspired by his spiritual journey. He had an out-of-body experience in the 1970s. So taken was he by this event that he began to search for everything he could find on the subject, but discovered there was very little information to be had. However, through research and practice, he did come to know himself as a spiritual being, with a unique identity separate from the body. No less than 15 such out-of-body experiences later, Tommy began to spin an exciting sci-fi yarn that takes the human spirit and its potentials to the extreme.

Based on his revelations, he has written hundreds of original songs about these extraordinary journeys. In 2011, he began writing his first novel, Soul Wars, which reflects his understanding of life drawing upon his views of political, ethical, and moral reality of today’s society wrapped in a compelling drama set in the present and future filled with starships, flying saucers, laser weapons, intergalactic battles, and the ultimate struggle for all souls everywhere.

Born in New York City and raised on Long Island, Tommy Scherer attended the College of Santa Fe, New Mexico. Today he lives with his beautiful wife along with his daughter and son in Southern California.

He is currently at work on writing book two of Soul Wars.

Welcome, Tommy. Please tell us about your current release.

Soul Wars is a fast paced original sci-fi saga that ties flying saucers, laser rifles, love, and interstellar battles in with the intriguing concept of advanced spiritual beings who are able to leave their bodies and interact with the material world. It is a light, almost whimsical touch on a deadly serious activity coupled with a gripping story and an eerie sense of truth running throughout.

What inspired you to write this book?

My own spiritual experiences inspired me. I had an out-of-body experience in the 1970's, which got me interested in spirituality. I have since studied everything I could find on the subject, and after much research and other out-of-body experiences, I was inspired to incorporate my experiences into a sci-fi yarn to grapple with the human spirit and its potentials. Soul Wars is a product of my research, personal experiences and ideas of how understanding the spirit might influence our future.

What exciting story are you working on next?

The second book in the series, called Soul Wars II, The Enemy Revealed.

When did you first consider yourself a writer?

In 2010, after I wrote some pamphlets on the human spirit and marriage. I then wrote a short autobiography called Long Island Boy Finds Truth. Additionally, I am a singer, songwriter, and musician. I have written several hundred songs and recorded several albums.

Do you write full-time? If so, what's your work day like? If not, what do you do other than write and how do you find time to write?

I own and run a roofing company in L.A. and write part time. I run the roofing company during the day and write at night. I would consider myself an explorer of the human condition and I usually write about that in my songs and my books.

As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?

I wanted to be a baseball player. In fact, I was a phenomenon in Syosset when I was in little league. Being MVP in my league for three consecutive years, I was the best athlete in my High School and sports were my life. My life changed when I met an individual who inspired me to take a look at my state as a person and began to make changes in the way I operated. This put me on a spiritual road that I am still on to this day.

Anything else you'd like to share with the readers?

Here are links for more information about me, and the book: Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Amazon

Thanks for being here today, Tommy. Happy writing!

Interview with non-fiction spiritual writer Marie Saint-Louis

Today's special guest is clairvoyant and spiritual writer Marie Saint-Louis. She's chatting with me about her first book in a new series, RSVP from Heaven.

Bio:

Marie Saint-Louis is a psychic medium with an international cliental that includes celebrities and she has read at functions sponsored by major corporations. She also frequently appears at events in the Phoenix area and at private parties.

“My story all began at a radio station sponsored swap meet located in a casino parking lot. Just months earlier, I won a large jackpot on a nickel slot machine and decided to bring my gift of talking to the dead and guiding people on their lives through reading at parties and events. The jackpot allowed me to pay the vendor fees to get started. I’ve never looked back since.”

She believes that “no event is too small or location too far” for her to share her gift.

“Since childhood, I’ve talked to the deceased and was able to tell people very detailed things about their lives that couldn’t be explained. I’ve never read a book, or studied how to be a psychic medium….I was born this way.”

Marie lives in Mesa, Arizona with her two cats, numerous houseplants, and visiting spirits.

Welcome, Marie. Please tell us about your current release.

The book tells my story. Here's a blurb:

Marie Saint-Louis is a psychic medium who has spent years sharing guidance and communicating with the deceased for her clients from the comforts of her home. Now, she yearns to bring her spiritual gifts to the public.

Of course, it won’t be easy.

The stakes are high as Marie battles anxiety, rejection, and skeptics along the way at the most amazing parties and unique events around.

You’re invited to sit table side during readings at an Arizona casino swap meet and have front row seats with costumed guests during three nights of dazzling Hollywood Halloween parties. You never will know where Marie will show up next!

Told in a down to earth and often intimate style, Marie shares true tales of the compelling people she meets who are searching for direction in love, career, family, relocation, and other topics. In the midst of busy fairs and festivals, she passes messages on from deceased loved ones to the individuals seated at her vendor table.

RSVP from Heaven is a fresh new approach in spiritual books that will entertain and captivate readers around the world. A remarkable timeless tale about the shared emotions we experience as people and our quest to find answers while living our personal journeys.

What inspired you to write this book?

My clients were constantly asked when I was going to write a book. Through the years, I’ve shared many of my true stories with them, but never thought of writing a book.

My brother encouraged me to begin taking a journal with me and writing about my experiences. So, I stocked up on notebooks and pens from the 99 Cents Only store and began taking them with me everywhere. I kept notes on everything going around me, the people I met, and the spiritual readings which were the basis for the book. Authenticity is key to everything written for my readers.

Excerpt from RSVP from Heaven:

(Chapter Seven Halloween: Hollywood Style)

She looked ferocious.

Ten airbrushed black jagged stripes on each leg, plus two diagonally on her butt made it twelve. Multiple shades of orange liquid latex covered a sculpted body and a tousled mane of long wavy golden brown hair hung down. My eyes traveled the length of her back stopping at the stripe encircled tail.

When she turned, an intricately painted tiger’s face smiled back at me. Jagged stripes crossed a white painted chest, traveling down to her navel followed by a barely there, black string bikini. Finishing off her unbelievable costume was a pair of stilettos covering her feet, resembling feline paws.

She was truly a work of art.

I was given the best seat in the house; an elevated raised area, where arriving joyful costumed guests glided along the red carpet among flashing bulbs as photographer’s cameras captured the excitement.

The attendees were adorned in spectacular costumes, apparently created by professionals; Mad Scientist, Circus Ringleader, Warrior Princesses, Knights, and an assortment of sexy storybook characters. Last but not least, recognizable horror figures and superheroes from popular movies.

What exciting story are you working on next?

I’m presently writing the next book in the RSVP from Heaven series. The second book, will take readers on more exciting journeys.

One chapter will be about my experiences sharing psychic medium readings with guests at a Tattoo and Motorcycle event. My vendor table was alongside tattoo artists, piercers, and a seamstress sewing on various types of patches on the leather jackets for bikers.

Readers will once again be introduced to people seeking guidance or longing to be connected guests to deceased loved ones.

When did you first consider yourself a writer?

I never set out to be a writer. In 2008, I began a hobby of entering contests and sweepstakes. I happened to win two essay contests within six months of each other. My clients continued to ask me to write a book for them so I finally sat down and finished the first one.

Do you write full-time? If so, what's your work day like? If not, what do you do other than write and how do you find time to write?

At the time of writing my book, I was teaching students (16-21) at an alternative high school. At night, I had client appointments. Writing had to been done in between scheduled sessions and often did not end until 1am-2am in the morning.

What would you say is your interesting writing quirk?

I write most of my books using sharpened number 2 lead pencils and notebooks from the 99 Cents Only store. I find my best ideas come from writing on the back of store receipts, paper plates, and restaurant napkins.

As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?

I had several careers I was interested in as a child growing up. A park ranger, race car driver, fashion designer, and a teacher. After college, I ended up being a special education teacher in both juvenile correctional facilities and alternative school campuses.

Anything additional you want to share with the readers?

I want to connect with readers as much as I can through social media and there are several messages I hope readers take with them after finishing my book.

Here are two of them.

“We all have uncertainties about our life direction and purpose.”

I’ve have the pleasure to meet and guide people from all walks of life; college students, teachers, accountants, police officers, surgeons and even adult film stars. All of my stories make for a more interesting experience for my readers.

Throughout the book, readers will witness people coming to me when they are searching for direction and needing hope. We all have been there before; when our relationships are breaking apart, we are unfulfilled in our careers, family members causing havoc, and wondering if relocation will give us new opportunities and a new lease on life.

There are many people having a similar struggle within their own lives. It may not be the exact situation, but they are hurting as much as you or even more.

“Value your time with loved ones and make peace with them if you need to”

What I hear from clients is that they wished they had spent more time with loved ones before they passed. I love the part in the book where I read at a festival for a young man from Detroit, Michigan.

Dion was unsure about having his first psychic medium reading but once he sat down, I read for him for over an hour. I still remember when I connected Dion to his deceased brother Bernard. At one point during the session, Dion looked at me and said. “Damn the last time I saw my brother we fought over something real stupid. I wish I could take it all back because weeks later Bernard was murdered.”

Readers can discover me on the following social media sites:

Website | Twitter | Facebook

Thanks for being here today, Marie!

Interview with spiritual author Myrna J. Smith

Today's special guest is spiritual writer, Myrna J.Smith. We're chatting about her new book, God and Other Men: Religion, Romance, and the Search for Self-Love.

If you'd like to learn more about Myrna, you can visit her other tour stops. Dates and links are found here.

           

Welcome, Myrna. Please tell us a little bit about yourself.

I am fortunate to have lived in four different parts of the country: Oregon, Indiana, Wyoming, and New Jersey, and to end up in the one I like the best, New Jersey. I live in the western part of the state, in Frenchtown, where there are farms and open spaces, yet I can be downtown New York City in an hour and a half. I go there not only for the theater and the opera, but also for the energy emanating from the variety of people on the streets.

For over thirty years I taught English and, for the last few years, Comparative Religion at Raritan Valley Community College. During that time I was able to complete my Doctor of Education at Rutgers, and to attend Princeton University on Mid-Career Fellowships, once in English and once in Religion.

Besides reading and writing, I have two hobbies: playing duplicate bridge and traveling. I like the concentration required to play serious bridge—like writing, you can’t think about anything else. I also like the excitement of going someplace new, especially if the trip is not too planned. I just returned from five weeks in Asia, the last two being in Vietnam on my own.

To balance my competitive nature that comes out in playing bridge, I am a daily meditator and attend a Unity Spiritual Center. Luckily I have a great family that helps keep me grounded—three children, five grandchildren, a sister and a brother and some valued in-laws.

Please tell us about your current release, God and Other Men that released in Oct 2014.

Myrna Smith opens her story one Sunday night when she returns home from a ski weekend with her three children. While she was on the slopes, her husband had moved out. That had been the plan.

Yet her story, though it encompasses her divorce, is much larger. Ultimately, Smith sets out to love herself, to find an inner place where she can rest and grow.

In this search-for-the-holy-grail memoir, Smith traces her travels toward enlightenment as a middle-aged American woman with a wry humor and heartfelt longing. On the journey she discovers spiritual fulfillment doesn’t come easily, or all at once. For her, it is quite elusive.

The quest really started, she realizes, in her childhood on an Oregon farm where she and her older sister were once “converted” in their father’s pea patch by two young Bible summer school teachers barely out of their teens. The school was part of the tiny church their mother attended while their father stayed home, read Edgar Cayce books, and mused on reincarnation.

Later, drawn by the mysticism of the Hindus, Smith’s journey leads to Bangalore where she touches the robes of Sai Baba, the Indian saint. Back home in New Jersey, she finds herself in a country farm- house getting prescriptions channeled through a medium for every- thing from her back woes and diarrhea to an obsession with money.

She also writes of the demons that surface during a years-long love affair with her beloved Charlie and what A Course in Miracles stirred within her.

Smith’s story is one of adventure and effort that, in the end, reveals three simple yet essential truths that are both the journey and the destination. 

What inspired you to write this book?

In my late thirties, I got divorced, an event that threw me into a life crises and sent me on a spiritual search. Over the years I have had the privilege of seeing or studying with some unusual teachers. I saw the materializations of Satya Sai Baba when only a few hundred (as opposed to a few thousands that happened later) went to his darshans; I traveled and lived with two Indian gurus; and I received guidance from a mystic. I wanted to tell about these amazing people. I decided the best method would be to incorporate them and their stories into that of my own life crisis and spiritual search.

Excerpt:

This except needs a bit of set up. My father and my beloved paternal grandmother had read Hindu texts as well as the publications of Unity. My mother was a traditional Christian and took all four of us children to a fundamentalist Sunday school and sent us to Daily Vacation Bible School each summer. My sister Lynette and I, close together in age, had the following experience:

Two young women, hardly more than teenagers themselves came to our community to teach that summer. Each night they ate dinner with a different family from the church. When they arrived at our house Mother sent the four of us across the highway to pick peas for supper. Daddy had planted the peas next to the barley so he could irrigate the two crops together. Nothing grew without irrigation. We took brown paper bags Mother had saved to hold the peas. Squatting between the rows and picking peas in the still hot field, we were a captive audience for these young ambitious-for Christ women. When they started talking about Jesus, I knew what we were in for.

First they asked us to pray, to thank God for the food around us. Then the one with the dark hair said, “You must invite Jesus in. He is just waiting for an invitation. Say the words, ‘Jesus, come into my heart.’”

We said, in turn, “Jesus, come into my heart.” But Lynette and I both knew what was coming next. They asked us to say the statement we avoided, a statement that was spoken over and over again at Sunday school, a statement that Daddy and Grandma would find repugnant: “I accept Jesus Christ as my personal savior.” Had we been closer to the house, we could have just run inside. But we were across the road so there was no escaping.

“You each have to say the words or they won’t take,” said the one with the freckles and long reddish hair.

What were we to do? We had been trained to mind adults.

After we each had made our individual proclamations, “I accept Jesus Christ as my personal savior,” they clapped their hands. The darker one said, “It is so wonderful. You are saved.” Perhaps she pictured two new stars in her heavenly crown. Lynette and I tried to act happy too, but we knew in our hearts we had betrayed Daddy and Grandma (God and Other Men 26-28)

What exciting story are you working on next?

Although I would like to write the female Siddhartha, I am afraid I am bound to non-fiction. Right now I am working on two pieces. The first is an essay based on the drowning of a woman at the mouth of the Ganges. I was one of the first persons to meet her five traveling companions the day after she drowned. It has been turned down by one publication, so I have to revise it or look for another market. I am also preparing a talk on Conditioned and Unconditioned Reality for my spiritual center.

When did you first consider yourself a writer?

I have wanted to be a writer for many years, and even wrote a note to myself and put it in my drawer, “I want to be a writer” after I finished my dissertation. I did not have the courage to call myself a writer until after I published my book.

A conversation I had with an elderly professor at the university where I held an administrative job—and therefore had more time for writing— that contributed to my feeling of not being up to the task of being a writer. Everyone in the building knew I would be returning to my position as an English Professor at the community college from which I had a leave of absence, but this scholar asked me about my academic plans. I told him I intended to continue to write. He asked me a series of penetrating questions about my knowledge of languages, my research specialty, etc. When he found out I had no special skill, he made a disparaging remark, “How can you write; you have nothing to say.”

Fortunately, I was able to recover from his comment by finding that I do have something to say and can now comfortably call myself a writer.

Do you write full-time? If so, what's your workday like? If not, what do you do other than write and how do you find time to write?

I have trouble writing unless I have an idea to which I have committed myself. Because I give sermons a few times a year, I am often composing the next one. I attend a Unity Spiritual Center, so I do not have to defend any religious point of view. Once I have an idea I can write any time, any place. I wrote much of the first draft of my book God and Other Men when I was teaching part-time in a middle school—having retired from college teaching two years before.

 What would you say is your interesting writing quirk?

I often come up with ideas of what to write about, but not many take root. Once I get past the difficult and sometimes mysterious part of committing myself to a writing project, I spend time thinking. My mind seems to work best if I am moving, so I often go on solitary walks to work out a plan, almost an outline, in my mind, one that I hold onto to but don’t write out. Many writing experts have given advice on getting started. Some say just moving the hands to write, or type, produces ideas—I would extend that to moving the legs.

As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?

I grew up on a farm in Eastern Oregon with little exposure to anything but farmers, teachers, and nurses—we had doctors, of course, but they were men, so I put medicine out of my sight. I liked much of the farm work, especially plowing fields, so I held the dream of owning a large farm for awhile, but I soon saw that I would probably have to be a teacher if I wanted to escape the poverty of my family—something I was determined to do.

Anything additional you want to share with the readers?

At a recent book discussion of a memoir an historian argued that the book The Color of Water: A Black Man’s Tribute to His White Mother is really fiction because the conversations and other details could not have been recalled. I made the point that two events I use in my memoir, including the one above, were partially constructed with the help of my sister who was with me on both occasions, but that the feeling was the truth. Others in our book group agreed that the feeling is the most important aspect. Having just been in Vietnam and seen the Vietnam War (American War over there) I realize that history may also be fiction because of the bias of those telling the story.

Book site | Website | Facebook | Twitter

Thank you, Myrna!

Interview with memoirist Lorraine Ash

My special guest today is memoirist Lorraine Ash. Her newest memoir, Self and Soul: On Creating a Meaningful Life is the topic of conversation.

Book synopsis:

Are you living a life of quiet desperation? Questioning what it means to succeed? Wondering if your efforts matter? In this uplifting memoir, Lorraine Ash uses her own life experiences to explore inner landscapes where the seeds of divine healing and insight reside. These are the landscapes on which we create our own meaning and find the resiliency to thrive in a changing and challenging world.

Bio:

Lorraine Ash, M.A., is a New Jersey author, award-winning journalist, essayist, book editor, and writing teacher. Self and Soul: On Creating a Meaningful Life is her second book. In her leisure hours, she enjoys cooking, reading, philosophy, and the state of Maine. She lives with her husband, Bill, a jazz trumpeter.

Welcome, Lorraine. Please tell us about your current release.

Self and Soul: On Creating a Meaningful Life is a spiritual memoir that explores the decade after Victoria Helen, my daughter and only child, died at her birth from a Group B Strep infection that threatened my life as well. During that decade I also entered midlife so the story traces my shifts in consciousness concerning loss and mortality, faith and eternity, success and meaning. Though the text takes the reader to interesting places—a caving expedition, an ashram, Fallingwater, and Sedona—it’s mostly a book about interior landscapes. It shows that the quality of our lives is in direct relationship to the quality of our consciousness.

What inspired you to write this book?

I wanted to find meaning among the disparate and sometimes tragic experiences I’d had and inspire others to do the same. My first book, Life Touches Life: A Mother’s Story of Stillbirth and Healing, sparked great conversations and connections with bereaved parents across the globe. I got used to that level of interesting and sincere discourse and wanted to keep it going with my readers.

The first chapter of the book, “The Paradox of Loss,” can be read here, http://lorraineash.com/selfsoul_chap1.htm

What exciting story are you working on next?

I’m contemplating which story to choose but haven’t decided yet. One must choose carefully. Writing a book is a satisfying but long journey.

When did you first consider yourself a writer?

My defining moment came in sixth grade on the day Sister Maureen, my sixth-grade teacher, said a poem I’d written about an angel was very good — so good that she walked me to the eighth-grade English teacher, just to show it to her and brag about it.

Do you write full-time? If so, what's your work day like? If not, what do you do other than write and how do you find time to write?

I write full time as a journalist and I write memoir and the occasional short story part time. I edit quite a bit, too. None of it feels like work. Words always have been my way of processing the world.

What would you say is your interesting writing quirk?

I inherited an ability to focus for crazy long periods of time from my father, a lawyer who used to prepare for cases and write legal briefs for days on end. When I’m immersed in a topic, I can write for ten hours at a clip without looking up. It’s a habit I try mightily to break because it isn’t good for the eyes or muscles.

As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?

I wanted to be either a psychologist or a writer, though I think both were really about an interest in the same thing—understanding people. 

Anything else you'd like the readers to know?

Self and Soul: On Creating a Meaningful Life will be available on August 15, 2014 as a digital audiobook. Find it at Audible.com and Amazon.com as well as in the iTunes store.     

Links:

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Book page

Thanks, Lorraine!