So I woke up this morning and thought, “Oh, I haven’t posted a new interview in my Interviews With Women Writers series in an ENTIRE YEAR!” Well, I must remedy that today, friends, and I’m so excited to introduce you to Leigh Shulman, who I’ve known for a few years now and who is helping writers find their confidence through her mentoring programs! It’s so great to see writers helping and encouraging each other, so read on to learn more about Shulman’s work and mentoring projects… xoxo

Name: Leigh Shulman
Where are you from: I’ve moved around a lot. Right now, I live in Argentina
3 words to describe me: I asked my partner to answer this one for me. Passionate, talented, anxiety-prone
Website: Leigh Shulman

Tell me a bit about yourself…what do you do, what are your hobbies, etc.?
I’m a writer, mentor and book coach living in Argentina with my family. We travel as much as we can. I’ve taught writing and poetry at universities, continuing education programs and at small school programs in the U.S., Panama, Costa Rica and Argentina. My work has been featured in The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Establishment, Vox, Guernica and more. I’m also the author of The Writer’s Road Map!

These days, I spend my time writing and coaching women 1:1, at international writing retreats and also through The Writer’s Process, my online writing academy for people who want to learn writing skills, find their community and make money with their words. I want to help more women feel confident with their writing, finish their masterpieces and build professional careers.

When did you first know that you wanted to be a writer? Was it always something you wanted to do?
I remember sitting down to write in a notebook when I was 12. I was pissed off at something or another — as 12-year-olds do — and the words just poured onto the page. I just kept having things to say. From then on, I thought of myself a great writer. I wrote for the school newspaper, yearbook, for myself, short stories, you name it. I dreamed of writing and traveling the world.

But life doesn’t always work out as planned, right?

After college, I took a job at MTV, and while it was an incredible experience, I had little time and a lot of excuses that kept me from putting fingers to keyboard. Then when my daughter was born in 2004, my writing ground to a halt. Writing has always had a place in my life, although there have been many times I doubted and stopped putting pen to paper. I mean, if I’m not writing, am I still a writer?

Fortunately, I turned that ship around. I got my MA in creative writing and education and began teaching writing. When my daughter was three years old, we sold everything we owned and left Brooklyn to travel. We eventually settled in Argentina, which is my home base when I’m not traveling.

What writers/books did you admire growing up?
I read and totally wanted to be a character in Judy Blume and Beverly Cleary books. But most of all, I loved Madeline L’Engle. She came to speak at my school in third grade. I remember her telling us that people always asked her how to write books for children. She said, “You write them as you would for anyone else.”

What is most rewarding for you as a writer?
When I’m able to finish a piece of writing that makes my readers feel the way I intended. When someone tells me after reading, “Yes, that’s exactly it!” Or when I find a solution that helps me unravel a problem in a new story and helps me find my way to finishing.

What issues do you think women face as writers?
I’ve spent years working with women writers helping the write books, articles and publish. We simply don’t give ourselves enough credit. We feel like we have to first prove ourselves before we can definitively call ourselves writers. We worry that no one wants to hear what we have to say. Really, we just need to stop worrying about being pushy or aggressive or any of those adjectives too often used to tell us that we’re asking for too much.

I met so many women held back by these adjectives and expectations, I wrote a blog post about it!

What is one piece of advice you wish someone had given you when you were just starting out?
Just do what you want. Don’t worry about mistakes. Everyone makes them, and ignore anyone who tells you it’s impossible to do something you want to do. It never hurts to try. It does hurt to hold back from a dream because someone else has decided it’s not possible.

Be sure to follow Leigh on Twitter to keep up with her writing journey! I’d love to keep this series going, so feel free to email me at mellow1422@aol.com with ideas or if you’d like to be interviewed! We women have to stick together, right?!?!? xoxo

It’s been four months since we got to know some women writers in our Interviews With Women Writers series! I don’t know about you, but I could sure use some inspiration right about now, which is why I’m so excited to introduce you to Jackie Sizemore. Not only is she an MFA grad and freelance writer, but this year, she also added consultant to her impressive resume when she started Point of View Consulting, a writing consulting business!!! Read on for more on Sizemore’s background, the most rewarding part of her job and her thoughts on the issues women face as writers… xoxo

Name: Jackie Sizemore
Where are you from: The Rust Belt and Tokyo
3 words to describe me: Introvert, witty, nerd
Author website: Jackie Sizemore
Writing coaching/educational consulting business: Point of View Consulting

Tell me a bit about yourself…what do you do, what are your hobbies, etc.?
I grew up in a General Motors family, which means that I moved a lot. My list to date is: Dallas, East Lansing, Detroit, Tokyo, Buffalo, Pittsburgh, San Francisco, Boise and Laramie. Combine this with strong family ties to Kentucky and Tennessee. Being a constant “new kid” and being pegged as an outsider forced me to become a bit of an anthropologist in order to figure out how to culturally blend in or make friends. This turned out to be great practice for writing fiction. When I disclose my nomadic history with people, I’m often met with sadness or sympathy. But I really couldn’t imagine living any other way. I am happiest when I’m packing my things into a car and heading out to a new place and a new adventure. I received my MFA in Fiction from Boise State last year, and now I’m living in Laramie, Wyoming, while my partner attends his Creative Non-Fiction MFA program.

I write short stories for literary and sci-fi/fantasy markets, poetry, and creative non-fiction. Since graduating, I’ve started doing some freelance essays and articles as well. Right now, I am working on a bunch of writing projects, including a chapbook of poems about Paris, and my first novel, which is a near-future, dual-narrative feminist story.

I’ve also been preparing to launch my business called Point of View Consulting. I used to be an Assistant Director of Admissions for Carnegie Mellon University, and helping people with their college and graduate school process is one of my passions. Coaching people on the introspective process of writing their statements of purpose is so fulfilling, and I love working with narrative in this super practical way. All during graduate school, I had this dream of running my own college consulting and writing coaching business, and I finally found the time and energy to go for it! Working from home on various contract and on-call jobs while building up my business has also been wonderful because I get to spend more time with my dog Meeko. She can be a bit of a diva, but she makes sure I don’t stay at my desk too long so we can go for walks and kick at the tumbleweeds.

When did you first know that you wanted to be a writer? Was it always something you wanted to do?
In early elementary school, I thought I’d like to be a writer. I wrote exclusively about frogs going on adventures and solving mysteries, and would scotch tape the front pages to make covers. This dream was somewhat discouraged by adults in my life, and I didn’t really come back to thinking I wanted to be a professional writer until I was an undergrad. I wrote poetry all throughout middle and high school, but I felt like I was writing it in a vacuum. I just had no idea about the larger poetry world, that there were contests I could have been entering, or that poetry readings even existed. Luckily, my English teacher for 10th-12th grade, Mrs. Derrico, was very encouraging of my writing, and she was always handing me extra books to read, or offering to read what I was writing. At my undergrad school, Carnegie Mellon University, I learned that Creative Writing was a major. Surely if I could major in it, that meant I could also do it in a way that existed outside of my little notebooks? It sounds so silly now, but I really had no idea that one could study creative writing or actively pursue it in a professional way.

What is most rewarding for you as a writer?
For me, so much of writing is a puzzle. Whether it is poetry or fiction, when I feel like I’ve cracked a way of describing a weird motion or found a phrase that holds all three connotations the story needs, that is the highlight. This reward is even better if someone else reads the piece and notices that same spot that had been such a tough puzzle to put together. Making someone cry from laughing too hard is also good.

What issues do you think women face as writers?
I think many of the issues boil down to the inability to view women’s experiences as an equal default as men’s experiences. In many of the classes I’ve been in, whether graduate, undergraduate, or community, the feedback towards insights coming from female-identifying writers, or from female characters, seems to be, “I don’t know if I believe this because it’s not my experience, therefore I feel entitled to question it.” Of course, I’m not saying this happens 100% of the time, and this is certainly not limited to male readers. I feel that women writers are not given the same level of credibility when it comes to their interpretations of the world, their insights and their female characters. I can completely understand if someone, whatever identity, had only come across stories where female characters served to prop up a male character, that they could end up believing subconsciously that this is a perfectly acceptable way for characters or stories to interpret the female experience.

What would you tell aspiring writers today?
Writing can exist in a life in so many ways, and no one way is the best way. Explore all the paths, and write whatever projects or pieces call to you the strongest. Know that rejection is a constant, even for the writers you admire the most. There will always be a next step you can’t wait to get to, but don’t forget to enjoy and celebrate the steps you’ve accomplished so far. Understand that writing about backgrounds and cultures different from your own is a tall order, and that doing your homework and understanding the specific power struggles and existing appropriations will only make your work, and your writing ethics, stronger.

Is there anything else you think I should know?
I have zero unread emails in my inbox.

What wonderful inspiration, don’t you think, friends?? Be sure to follow Jackie on Twitter to keep up with her writing journey! I’d love to keep this series going, so feel free to email me at mellow1422@aol.com with ideas or if you’d like to be interviewed! We women have to stick together, right?!?!? xoxo